Family name origins & meanings
- French (also Prévost) and English : from Old French prevost ‘provost’ (from Latin praepositus, past participle of praeponere ‘to place in charge’), a status name for any of various officials in a position of responsibility. Prevost is a Huguenot name in Britain, while Le Prevost is a Guernsey surname.
- A Prévost from Paris is recorded in Quebec City in 1644; other families came from the Guyenne and from Normandy. An associated secondary surname is <xref>Laviolette</xref>. The French surgeon François Marie Prevost (b. 1764) settled in Donaldsonville, LA, c. 1800.