Explore the Family Name Defoe

The meaning of Defoe

1. Anglicized form of Swiss French Thévoz: from a pet form of the personal name Etève, a French dialect equivalent of Latin Stephanus (see Stephen, Etienne). Compare Dafoe and Devoe. 2. English: variant of Foe 2 and 3. 3. English (of French Huguenot origin): Anglicized form of French Dufau or Devaux. History: The surname Defoe (also Devoe, Dafoe) was brought to North America by Daniel Thevou, who was born in 1665 in Missy, Vaud canton, Switzerland (however, Thevou may be a misspelled form of his surname, since the only spelling known in Switzerland or elsewhere is Thévoz). He and his wife and children were among a number of Swiss refugees who joined many southwestern Germans in the Palatine migration of 1709, fleeing the ravages of a winter famine and the French army to seek refuge in England. In the London provisioning lists he was named as Deffu. After being shipped to the American colonies in 1710, he settled in Germantown, Albany County, NY. — The name Defoe is also established in England, where it was borne by the novelist, satirist, pamphleteer, and spy Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), author of Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and many other works. It may be nothing more than a curious onomastic coincidence that he wrote a fierce defence of the ‘poor Palatines’ in his journal The Review (June 21–August 22, 1709). The surname of his father, a Dissenter, was Foe. He changed his name to Defoe c.1703. There is no evidence that the London families called Devo(e) and Defoe have any connection with the Swiss family of Daniel Thevou/Thévoz.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.