Family name origins & meanings
- English : from Middle English provost ‘provost’, an occupational name for the head of a religious chapter or educational establishment, or, since such officials were usually clergy and celibate, a nickname for a self-important person.
- French : northern and western form of Prevost.
- A Provost from Paris is documented in Quebec City in 1665. An Etienne Provost, a hunter and guide born in Canada c. 1782, is believed to be the first white man to visit the Great Salt Lake.