Family name origins & meanings
- French (Crète, adjectival form Crété ‘crested’) : nickname for an arrogant individual, from Old French creste ‘crest (of a hill)’ (Late Latin crista), used with reference to the comb of a rooster. Compare Old French crester ‘to strut’.
- A settler from the Perche region of France, documented as Crete and Creste, is recorded in Quebec city as early as 1654.