Noted Prenatt genealogist François Prenat has compiled and published extensive research about the etymology of the surname Prenat, and there is apparently some ambiguity about the original spelling of this surname as well as a great deal of confusion regarding various other possibly related surnames, including Perrenat, Perrenot, Pernat, Prenot, and Prénat. However, all of François' research was published in French.

Definitive answers about the genesis of the surnames Prenat will have to wait for the completion of a translation of François' research that is currently underway by noted Prenatt genealogist Annette Lynch, a Prenatt descendant in the United States who is fluent in both French and English. However, one thing is virtually certain: The American version of the surname Prenatt was originally spelled with one “t,” – i.e., Prenat.

While it is not completely certain, the surname Prenat was probably derived from the surname Perrenat early in the 1700s. Moreover, by all genealogical accounts, all of the Prenats and Prenatts currently living in the United States can trace their lineage to the same small group of Prenats who emigrated from Villars le Sec, Belfort, France in the early to mid 1800s. In fact, there are still many Prenats living in Belfort during the 21st Century who are distant cousins of the Prenats and Prenatts who live in the United States.

The flag of Alsace.

The Territoire de Belfort is located in the Franche-Comté region, an area in present-day France at the confluence of Alsace, Germany, and Switzerland. However, the present-day boundaries of these countries and regions were not determined until the 20th Century, when Germany ceded Alsace back to France at the end of World War I. Until the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, when the Second French Empire ceded most of Alsace to Germany, Belfort was considered part of Alsace, in the département du Haut-Rhin, and all of the Prenats who emigrated to the United States from Belfort during the 19th Century identified themselves as Alsatians in their immigration and naturalization papers. (For more information about Alsace and Alsatian Genealogy, see The Communities of Alsace A-Z.)

Alsace before 1648
Alsace became part of the Kingdom of France in 1648 under Louis XIV (1643-1715) when the Hapsburgs of Austria ceded whatever claims they had to Alsace in a treaty known as the Peace of Westphalia. This treaty signified the end of the Thirty Years War, which raged through central Europe from 1618 to 1648, with Alsace as one of its principal battlegrounds. Prior to this time, Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire, most recently under the administration of the Hapsburgs of Austria.

The Holy Roman Empire was a peculiar institution that lasted for almost a thousand years. It was best described by the 18th Century French author Voltaire as being "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." Rather, it was a loose confederation of nation states ruled by various dukes that emerged from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after the death of Louis the Pious in 840.

After a few years of warfare between the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, the sons formally divided the Frankish realm into three separate kingdoms in 843 by virtue of the Treaty of Verdun. The eldest son, Lothar, received the central portion of the Frankish realm, including what is present day Alsace; Louis the German received the eastern portion, which would later evolve into the Holy Roman Empire; and Charles the Bald received the western portion, much of which would later become France. Notwithstanding the warfare subsequent to the death of Louis the Pious, the separate kingdoms of his three sons were already well established at the time of his death.

The first use of the surnames Prenat and Prenatt
By all genealogical accounts, the first person to use the surname Prenat (i.e., with one "t") was Jacques Prenat (3 Mar 1717/1718 – 9 Feb 1782), the son of Jean Perrenat (c. 1643 – 24 Feb, 1704/1705) of Beaucourt, France and Morize Boussoy (born c. 1644). Jean was the son of Richard Perrenat (born c. 1611) of Montbouton, Alsace and Richard’s wife Catherine, and Richard Perrenat is the most ancient direct patrilineal ancestor known for the Prenats and Prenatts living in the United States today.

The surname Prenatt (i.e., with two "ts") was first used during the 19th Century in the United States by a large number of Prenats and Prenat descendants. An apocryphal story that has been handed down from father to son is that this alternate spelling was the result of two unrelated families of Prenats who lived in the same town and frequently had problems with receiving each other's mail.

• Descendants of Richard Perrenat

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