Origin of Babit name

Probably, the surname Babit (Babitt) is a modification of the surname Babad.

The surname Babad is an abbreviation and stands for “Ben Av Beith Din” (the son of the chairman of the rabbinical court). The one, who held the position of the chairman of the rabbinical court at the same time was the assistant chief (Nasi) of the court.

The founder of the Babad dynasty was Joshua Heshl ben Itskhak Babad (1754–1838). He was the chief rabbi at the Ukrainian town of Ternopol and its outskirts from 1801 and till the period of the catastrophe. One of the streets in Ternopol, leading to the synagogue, was named after him.

Here are some of the descendants of Joshua Heshl ben Itskhak Babad:
Josef Babad, Talmudist and galakhist, the author of the work about 613 mitsvot (commandments) “Minkhat Hinukh”, was a chief rabbi in Zbarazh and the leader of the local ieshiva at the second half of the 19-th century.
The other Josef Babad (born in 1875 in Golgory, death in 1943 in Manchester, Great Britain, was a chief rabbi of the townlet of Kalush in Galitsia, in 1910-1930-s.
Ties of relation connect the Babad family with the ancient rabbinical Shor dynasty. The daughter of Alexander-Sender Shor, Deborah married Israel Babad. Later, their son Meir Shor changed his surname to Brodskiy. His descendants were well-known sugar magnates and philanthropists of the 19-th century.

The surname Babit was found at the townlet of Stanislawow (Ivano-Frankovsk) at the territory of Galicia and in Ponevezh at Lithuania