Scandinavian name meaning 'exalted one' or from Brittany; also a short form of Brittany.
Britt is the Scandinavian answer to Bridget—a clean, Nordic compression of the ancient Celtic name Brigid. Brigid herself was one of the most venerated goddesses of pre-Christian Ireland: a triple deity of poetry, healing, and smithcraft whose worship was so deep-rooted that early Christian missionaries transformed her into Saint Brigid of Kildare rather than attempt to erase her. The name's Proto-Celtic root, brigh, is typically rendered as "strength," "virtue," or "exalted one."
As Christianity spread through Scandinavia, Brigid's name arrived with it and was adapted to local phonology, producing Birgitta in Swedish and Norwegian and eventually its short form Britt. Saint Birgitta of Sweden—a fourteenth-century mystic and one of the patron saints of Europe—gave the name towering religious prestige in the Nordic world, and Britt became a beloved diminutive across Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The Swedish actress Britt Ekland brought this distinctly Scandinavian form to global attention in the 1960s and 70s.
In English-speaking countries Britt occupies an appealing niche: it is immediately recognizable and pronounceable, carries a crisp Northern European energy, and has enough history to feel grounded. Parents drawn to short, strong names with mythological depth often find Britt appealing—it wears no ornamentation and needs none.