Pilat is a common

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. It is spelled simply ''Pilat'' in Western countries such as France and Austria, ''Pilát'' in

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

and Slovak, and ''Piłat'' in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

. 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 Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

boasting a large number of the nearly 6,879 Poles sharing the surname. There are two different Piłatka localities in the

Mazowsze Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...

and

regions. It is also the name of a natural park near

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Origin

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: from the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

word for 'strong sword', or bilihart. (Bihel = sword or ax.) *

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

habitational name A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,

from Pilat in

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

The Great Dune of Pyla The Dune of Pilat ( , official name), also called ''Grande Dune du Pilat'', is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It is located in La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon Bay area, France, 60 km (37.2 mi) southwest of Bordeaux along France's At ...

on the Atlantic coast, and

Mont Pilat Mont Pilat or the Pilat massif is a mountainous area in the east of the Massif Central of France. Name The origin of the name "Pilat" is uncertain. The word may have a Latin origin (''Mons Pileatus''). Another legend says that the body of Ponti ...

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

. 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. *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: in ancient

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, a ''pilum'' was a throwing spear carried by the

legionnaires The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

. Another theory of

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; ) was the Roman administration of Judaea (AD 6–135), fifth governor of the Judaea (Roman province), Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official wh ...

's origin is that he belonged to the Equestrian class of people. *

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

(Czech, Slovak and Polish): an individual acting/portraying the character of

, 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?''Last Name Meaning and Origin of Pilat, website
accessed 22 August 2007.

Derivations

* Pilate * Pilati * 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 counts Pielat, Pilati or Pillot of

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

, respectively.

Persons with the surname Pilat

Albert Pilát Albert Pilát (November 2, 1903 – May 29, 1974) was a Czech botany, botanist and mycology, mycologist. He studied at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, under the guidance of Professor Josef Velenovský. In 1930, he joined the Nationa ...

(1903-1974), a Czech botanist and mycologist *

Corrado Pilat Corrado Pilat (born 24 September 1974 in Belluno) is a former Italian international rugby union player and a current coach. He played as a fullback and as a fly-half. He played professionally for Benetton Treviso, from 1998/99 to 200/01, where ...

is an Italian rugby union player. * Ignaz Anton Pilat was the landscape architect for Frederick Law Olmsted to Central Park and an Austrian émigré. * Stanisław Piłat 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 World War II.

References

External links

Pilat National Park in Loire
{{Surname, Pilat Surnames