Tutt

Recorded in several forms including Tott, Tut, Tuat, Tute, Tutt, the diminutives Tuttle and Tutin, and no doubt other spellings, this is a surname of Olde English origins. These are understood to lie in the pre 7th century personal name Tot or Tut, from "totian", meaning to look out, and originally given as a nickname to a look-out or watchman. Though not recorded independently this personal name is preserved in such placenames as Tutnall in Worcestershire and Tuttington in Norfolk. The former, recorded as Tothehel in the Domesday Book of 1086, translates as Tutta's hill and the latter appearing as Totington and Tutintune in "Records of St. Benet of Holme", Norfolk, circa 1044, translates as "the dwellers at Tot's or Tut's settlement", from the Old English "tun", a settlement and "ing", dwellers at. The surname adopted from the personal name is first recorded in the early half of the 13th Century, (see below). In 1322, Johannes Tut of Lostwithiel Borough, Cornwall, appears on a list of those returned to serve in parliament and in 1440 Roger Tutt of Radlinch was recorded in Hampshire. Sir Alexander Tutt of Wootton Bassett Borough, Wiltshire, was returned to serve in parliament in March 1603, whilst Edwin Tute was a christening witness at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on January 18th 1629. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Tut, of Wilton, Wiltshire, which was dated 1236, "The Victoria History of the Counties of England", during the reign of King Henry III, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.