A male name. this is now chiefly a surname, though occasionally used, like other surnames, as a christian name. It was, however, used as a christian name in the Middle Ages. C. W. Bardsley, Dictionary of English and WelshSurnames (pub. 1901) gives several instances of Talebot as a christian name in the 12th and 13th C. The famous and ancient family of Talbot took its name from its founder Richard Talbot, one of the companions of the Conqueror. The surname never appears in early records as de Talbot, and there can be little doubt that in the case of the original Richard Talbot it was either a patronymic or (more likely) a nickname. Similar nicknames were Taillefer (found as a christian name as late as the end of the 13th C), Taillemache, which gave rise respectively to the surnames Telfer and Tollemache. Talbot would he a compound of tailler ‘to cut’ and botte ‘faggot’. At a later date Talbot was used (e.g. in Chaucer) as a sort of nickname for a dog, and later still for a particular breed of dogs as well as (in heraldic language) for the dogs borne on the Talbot arms.

A male name derived from talbot, in heraldry a term for a hunting dog. Bailey translates it ‘a dog with a turned-up tail;’ probably from the Anglo Saxon tegl a tail, and butan; but Lye renders butan var. ‘præter, extra, solum, tantum, sive.’ The name is found Latinised Talbuttus. Dr. Johnson defines talbot ‘a hound,’ and says that it is borne by the house of Talbot in their arms, which Mr. Lower denies.

A Old English name, meaning: Name of the original stock of bloodhounds: used in heraldic designs.