Chrétien

Chrétien is a French surname and, occasionally, a given name. In French, chrétien is the word for a Christian or for someone who follows Christianity. The name derives from the Late Latin Christianus and entered Old French as Cristien/Chrétien, later developing the modern form with the acute accent on the first e.

The surname is common in France and in Francophone communities, notably in Canada where many families adopted it through French colonial and migratory histories. As a given name, Chrétien has been used historically but is far more frequently encountered as a surname in contemporary contexts. In English-language writing, the name is often shown without the accent as Chretien.

Notable individuals with the surname include Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135–c. 1190), a 12th-century French poet associated with Arthurian romance, whose works helped shape medieval chivalric literature. In modern politics, Jean Chrétien (born 1934) is a Canadian politician who served as prime minister from 1993 to 2003. The name appears in various other fields and regions, reflecting its French linguistic heritage and enduring presence in Francophone cultures.

See also Christian, the broader term in English for adherents of Christianity, and Chretien, a common English-language variant spelling used when the accent is omitted.