Pilat

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Pilat is a common surname in Central Europe.^[1] It is spelled simply Pilat in Western countries such as France and Austria, Pilát in Czech and Slovak, and Piłat in Polish. This may refer to individuals bearing the last name or the name itself.

The Southeast corner of Poland appears to be an ancestral heartland, with Lublin boasting a large number of the nearly 6,879 Poles sharing the surname. There are two different Piłatka localities in the Mazowsze and Lublin regions.

Contents 1 Origin 2 Derivations 3 Notable Personalities 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Origin

• German: from the Saxon word for 'strong sword', or bilihart. (Bihel = sword or ax.)
• French: habitational name from Pilat in Gironde, The Great Dune of Pyla in La Côte-d'Or, and Le Mont Pilat in Loire. The name is believed to be derived by one of two tribes of Celtic peoples - the Séguisaves and Allobroges in whose language Pi- = mount and -lat = broad.^[2]
• Italian: in ancient Rome, a pilum was a throwing spear carried by the legionnaires. Another theory of Pilate's origin is that he belonged to the Equestrian class of people.^[3]
• Slavic (Czech, Slovak and Polish): an individual acting/portraying the character of Pilate, particularly in a Passion play. A popular misconception is that, spelling differences aside, the historical figure of Pontius Pilate is somehow the progenitor of this last name. In actuality, he hailed from a Roman tribe properly called the Pontii.^[4]

[edit] Derivations

• Pilato
• Pilatowski
• Pilatou
• Pilatus
• Pilatz

Bucket shops purporting to sell Pilat 'family coats of arms' (a fallacy in terms) often draw spurious connections to those escutcheons (and histories) properly belonging to the countly Pielat, Pilati or Pillot families of the Netherlands, Austria and France, respectively.

[edit] Notable Personalities

The surname Pilat was noted by historiographer/sociologist Jan Stanislaw Bystron as a noble one, particularly marked by achievements in poetry and prose:

...Perka, Piłat, Zajączek, Nagora, Nycz, Kromer,
Misztołd, Myszka, Piwo, Narbut, Pszonka, Romer;
Koc, Górka, Kadłubek, Pac i Pasek z Łozą,
Tych ród zacny i wierszem sławiono, i prozą.^[5]

• Andrzej Piłat is the current Polish minister of infrastructure of the SLD (Democratic Left Alliance) - from Płock.
• Bill Pilat is a lacrosse coach at Roanoke College, with the winningest record at Roanoke College.
• Corrado Pilat is an Italian rugby union player.
• Dirk Pilat is the Senior Economist at the OECD originally born and educated in The Netherlands.
• Ignaz Anton Pilat was the landscape architect for Frederick Law Olmsted to Central Park and an Austrian emigré.
• Jozef Anton Edler von Pilat was the private secretary to Prinz Klemenz von Metternich.
• Julia Pilat is an upstate New York public school teacher previously featured in US Army television commercials.
• Lorenzo Pilat is an Italian composer and singer, as well as previous collaborator with Tom Jones.
• Ludmilla Pilat-Welch was an early American painter and also an Austrian émigré.
• Oliver Ramsay Pilat was a newspaper man (NY Post) & author.
• Richard Pilat is a Swedish classical pianist.
• Stanisław Piłat was head of the Institute of Technology of Petroleum and Natural Gases and patentholder at Lviv University, Ukraine who was killed by the Nazi secret police during WWII.
• Tadeusz Piłat was an author and historian of Poland and the father of Stanisław.
• Vaclav Pilàt was a Czech national who flew in WWI for the Austro-Hungarian air force.

[edit] External links

• Pilat Consulting & Media, a UK-based research and consulting firm
• La Dune du Pyla
• Pilat National Park in Loire
• Collège du Pilat
• Pilat & Pilat Netherlands furniture
• Tadeusz H. Pilat, a professional genealogist
• Pilats awarded the Polish Virtuti Militari medal
• Pilats murdered during the Katyn Forest Killing
• Pilats recognized among the Jewish Yad Vashem

[edit] References