Hitter

This is a surname which can be English, German or Hebrew. In most cases it would seem to originate from the pre 7th century Old High German word "huter" meaning a guard or watchman, although the Jewish equivalent word from the same period is "hitter" with the same meaning. It is also possible that in England the name is locational, and as such describes a person from Hythe, the village in Kent. This is first recorded as early as the year 1052 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and in the spelling of "Hype". It is also possible that the name for some nameholders is topographical, and if so would have described somebody who lived at a "hyp", meaning a dock or pier, plus the agent suffix "-er", emphasising one who worked or was resident at a dock. Surnames which appear in the same spelling, but in different languages pose special problems, and even more so in this case, as the Anglo-Saxons of the 6th century a.d. did originally speak German, and introduced many of their words into the later "English" language. Examples of the surname recording include Thomas, the son of John Hittyer, at St Olaves church in the city of London, on April 4th 1606, and Elysabeth Hitter, the daughter of Marke Hitter, who was christened at Sunbury on Thames, on December 29th 1663.