From: "The Book of Ulster Surnames", by Robert Bell ESBN # 0-85640-405-5 (paperback). Page 122. LITTLE; (also Lyttle) These names can be of English, Scottish or Irish origin and are most common in Dublin and in ULster, especially in Antrim and Fermanagh. The name is, of course, Engl;ish by original derivation and was descriptive of the bearer, froom Old English (lytel), meaning 'small' In Scotland, Little was the name of one of the lesser of the riding clans of the Borders. Neighbors of the Beatties, they were based in Eskdale and Ewesdale in Drumfriesshire and were recorded as one of the unruly clans of the West March in 1587. Little can also be a variant of Liddel, a territorial name from Liddel in Roxburghshire, and indeed the two names were recorded as synonymous in the Poyntzpass district in co Armagh towards the end of the 19th century. At the same time Little was recorded as a synonym of Beggan in co Monaghan. Beggan, Gaelic-(O Beagain or O'Beacain), was the name of a sept of the Clones-Roslea-Donagh area and most of this sept anglicised it to Little. However, it is clear that a large number of members of the riding clans of the Scottish Borders settled in Fermanagh at the time of the Plantation (1609-1620) and settlers called Little were recorded there in the 17th century. It will therefore be difficult, without a confirmed family tree, to determine the origins of any individual.