From Old French 'fils,' meaning 'son of.' Originally an Anglo-Norman patronymic prefix.
Fitz derives from the Anglo-Norman 'fils,' meaning 'son of' — a prefix that the Normans brought to England after 1066 and which attached itself prolifically to surnames: FitzGerald (son of Gerald), FitzRoy (son of the king, often indicating royal illegitimacy), FitzHugh, FitzPatrick, and dozens more. In medieval England, the Fitz- prefix carried aristocratic weight, and the surnames it generated became the names of some of England's most powerful dynasties. The FitzGeralds in particular became so dominant in Ireland that a saying arose: 'More Irish than the Irish themselves.'
As a standalone given name, Fitz is a twentieth-century development — a surname extracted and repurposed with the casual confidence of modern naming. F. Scott Fitzgerald, born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, popularized the sound if not the standalone form; his initials and surname kept 'Fitz' in cultural circulation through 'The Great Gatsby' and the entire mythology of the Jazz Age.
The name also appeared in various aristocratic British families as a first name, nodding to ancestral surnames. Today Fitz occupies an appealing niche: short, punchy, historically rich, and genuinely rare as a given name. It carries the energy of a nickname that has grown into its own identity — confident and uncluttered. Parents drawn to short, strong names with genealogical depth have begun reaching for Fitz with increasing frequency.