Nutt
Usually a surname from the old Scandinavian personal name Canute/Knut, though in some cases it may also have described someone living by a nut tree.
The #4,706 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,942 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical explanation connects Nutt with the Scandinavian personal name Knut, later Anglicized as Canute. In that reading, the surname began as a short form or descendant of a baptismal name meaning a personal name rather than a place or trade. Some writers also allowed a secondary English source from Old English words for a nut or nut tree, which could have produced a nickname or topographic byname.
History
Nutt appears in medieval records alongside related forms such as Nott, Nutson, and Nutkins, which helped early surname scholars argue for a baptismal origin from Cnut/Canute. The name is found in England by the 13th century and later persists in several regional surname families. Because the spelling is identical to the common noun, some branches may have been influenced by folk association with nuts or nut trees.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books note that forms like Nutkins and Nutson were especially useful clues for linking Nutt to the medieval name Cnut/Canute.
From the historical record
“NUTSON, Nut(t)'s Son : v. Nutt. NUTT (A.-Scand.) an Anglicized form (loth and nth cent. Cnut) of the O.N. Kniit-r (Canute) [O.N. kniit^, a knot] (Eng.) I Dweller by a Nut-Tree [O.E! hnutu, a nut] 2 occ. conf. with Nott, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)