The French surname Paquet is derived from the Old French word  pacquet meaning “ a bundle (of firewood),” a diminutive of paque meaning “parcel,” hence an occupational name for a gatherer or seller of firewood or kindling. The name is first recorded in 1529 in Limousin where the family held an ancestral seat in Salaignac, and were members of the aristocracy in that region. The first record of the name in the New World is in Quebec, Canada  in 1665 when Isaac Paquette is recorded. Today there are approximately 1,300 bearers of the name Paquet in the United States.