Butt family name.
My paternal grandfather was called Butt. Stating this fact probably opens me up to having my bank account drained by a hacker and my identity stolen. Ho Hum.
Anyway, I got to wondering about the name Butt. I noticed that Salman Butt, of the Pakistani cricket team shared a name with my mother, which is pretty odd since she there are no obvious subcontinental links in our family tree as far back as the eye can see.
Wikipedia reveals that Butt is a name that means 'priest' and is linked to Bhat or Bhatt and is a Kashmiri family name. I can find some web references to Butts of Shepton Mallet. I am vaguely aware that my grandfather came from Somerset, but I don't even know if Shepton Mallet is actually in Somerset, although surely it is in the West Country.
As someone who grew up in South Wales I could hardly fail to be aware that the word 'butt' is used to mean something like 'mate' in the slang of the region. I could find only one reference to this meaning of the word on yahoo answers. I would never use this in English company as it already has too many confusing meanings.
Why is it that we are asked for our mother's maiden name as part of the 'taking you through security' when phoning one's bank. It is becoming rarer and rarer for women to change their names when they get married, and now as many women have children when they are not married as when they are. The other questions one is asked are date of birth and place of birth, but these are on passports, which are constantly being photocopied as the 'photo-id' that is needed even to hire a power drill these days.
Anyway, I got to wondering about the name Butt. I noticed that Salman Butt, of the Pakistani cricket team shared a name with my mother, which is pretty odd since she there are no obvious subcontinental links in our family tree as far back as the eye can see.
Wikipedia reveals that Butt is a name that means 'priest' and is linked to Bhat or Bhatt and is a Kashmiri family name. I can find some web references to Butts of Shepton Mallet. I am vaguely aware that my grandfather came from Somerset, but I don't even know if Shepton Mallet is actually in Somerset, although surely it is in the West Country.
As someone who grew up in South Wales I could hardly fail to be aware that the word 'butt' is used to mean something like 'mate' in the slang of the region. I could find only one reference to this meaning of the word on yahoo answers. I would never use this in English company as it already has too many confusing meanings.
Why is it that we are asked for our mother's maiden name as part of the 'taking you through security' when phoning one's bank. It is becoming rarer and rarer for women to change their names when they get married, and now as many women have children when they are not married as when they are. The other questions one is asked are date of birth and place of birth, but these are on passports, which are constantly being photocopied as the 'photo-id' that is needed even to hire a power drill these days.