Famiglia piemontese di antica e nobile tradizione, propagatasi, nel corso dei secoli, in diverse regioni d’Italia. Si ritiene che la cognominizzazione, anteriore al XVII secolo, sia una patronimia derivata dal nome medioevale Minetto appartenuto al capostipite. Numerosi personaggi di tale cognome si trovano, di sovente, menzionati in documenti ed atti notarili fin dai secoli trascorsi, dai quali appare che erano di condizione elevata. Ricordiamo: Monsignor Pietro Minetti, assessore e sotto Promotore della fede, nonché esperto giurista, vivente nel diciannovesimo secolo; Giacomo, agente doganale, vivente nel 1864; Eustachio, Giuseppe e altro Giacomo, i quali risultano come sottoscriventi della “legge Siccardi”. Inoltre, un Minetti viene annoverato come giovane e valoroso sergente dell’esercito Napoleonico, così come risulta da “L’Italia Militare: rassegna bimestrale”. Inoltre, che i membri della famiglia Minetti siano noncuranti delle cose volgari, ripromettendosi dalle sole loro energie la dovuta ricompensa, lo provano i documenti fino ad oggi conosciuti come il Dizionario Storico-Blasonico del commendatore G.B. di Crollalanza che ne ha raccolte le tracce lasciate dalla famiglia in quelle città ove ebbe dimora ricoprendo cariche legislative, militari o altro, contribuendo non poco alla riuscita di quei documenti utili alla scoperta di questa famiglia. . Riguardo a questo cognome abbiamo ritrovato ulteriori informazioni storiche in altri archivi. Purtroppo in lingua originale Inglese. : This Last Name MINETTI now widespread throughout Europe in its many forms of spelling was primarily from a medieval given name, from the Latin DOMINICUS meaning ‘of the Lord’. The name is also spelt MINET, MINNETT, MINOT, MINNOTT and MINNETTE. The name was borne by a Spanish saint (1170-1221) who founded the Dominican order of monks, and whose fame gave an added boost to the popularity of the name, already well established because of its symbolic value. In 1212 St. Dominic founded the Order of Friars Preachers. Born in Calaruega in Old Castile, he studied at Palencia acquiring such a name for piety and learning that in 1193 the bishop of Osma made him a canon and relied on his help to reform the whole chapter according to the Augustine rule. He led a life of rigorous ascetiscism and devoted himself to missionary labours among Muslims and ‘heretics’. In 1204 he accompanied his bishop on a political mission, and had to travel round the south of France three times. By 1220 the Dominicans adopted a poverty so rigid that not even the order as a corporation could hold houses or lands, and thus they forced themselves to become beggars. The order spread all over the world, including France, Italy, Spain and Austria, and in England, from their dress, they became known as the Black Friars. He was canonized in 1234 by Gregory IX. Since the dawn of civilisation the need to communicate has been a prime drive of all higher mankind. The more organized the social structure became, the more exigent the need to name places, objects and situations essential to the survival and existence of the social unit. From this common stem arose the requirements to identify families, tribes and individual members evolving into a pattern in evidence today. In the formation of this history, common usage of customs, trades, locations, patronymic and generic terms were frequently adopted as last names. The demands of bureaucracy formally introduced by feudal lords in the 11th century, to define the boundaries and families within their fiefdoms, solidified the need for personal identification and accountability, and last names became in general use from this time onwards. A noble member of the name was George Richards MINOT (1885-1950) the American physician, professor of medicine at Harvard (1928-48). In 1934 he shared the Nobel prize for Physiology….
Noble title: Nobili