Family name origins & meanings
- French : of uncertain derivation; perhaps a diminutive of Crotte, a topographical name from Latin crypta ‘grotto’. Since the name Crotte is spelled and pronounced the same as a word meaning ‘excrement’, a family might have welcomed the opportunity to vary it.
- A Croteau from Normandy, France, is documented in 1669 in Becquet (Cap Rouge), Quebec.