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Updated June 9, 2019

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.

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