Butt
A surname that can come from a place-name, a topographic feature like a boundary or hill projection, or sometimes from a byname linked to archery butts.
The #5,007 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,981 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Butt has several possible origins in the historical sources. One line of explanation treats it as a locational surname, from places called Butt in Normandy or from English places and landmarks named for a "butt" or projecting piece of land. Another possibility is topographic: Middle English butt could refer to a boundary marker, a hill end, or a headland. Some older writers also connected related forms with archery butts, the target-mounds used in practice, though this is more securely relevant to the plural surname Butts than to Butt itself.
History
Lower explicitly notes Butt as the name of several places in the arrondissement of Falaise, supporting a place-name origin. Bardsley and Arthur both discuss related forms in connection with topographic terms and archery butts, showing that the surname may have developed independently in more than one way. Modern English usage also overlaps with the surname Butler and with short forms such as Buttr in continental records, so some examples may not be from the same family stream.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In historical English parish records, people were sometimes described as living “at the Butts,” referring to archery practice grounds, which helped create a number of local surnames.
From the historical record
“BUTLIN. See Boutevilein. BUTT. But — the name of several places in the aiToudissement of Falaise. BUTTEMER. Two or three gener.ations since was written Buttermer, and it is pre- sumed to have been derived from a famous northern Lake. BUTTER. Boterus nnd Botorus are found as personal names in Domesday. BUTTERICK.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom