This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the butur.' 'Buture, the bittern. North' (Halliwell). 'Botor, a bustard. "Ther was venisoun of hert and bors, Swannes, pecokes, and botors." Arthourand Merlin.' ibid. v. Bustard.

John le Butur, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

John le Botur, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

John Botere, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

1581. Richard Butter, New. Coll.: Register of the University of Oxford.

1786. Married — William Torris and Frances Butter: St. George, Hanover Square.

These surnames are common to the shires of Fife and Perth and may be connected with the old name Buttergask, the name of a village in the parish of Ardoch. Butter was the name of an old family in Perthshire where they possessed the lands of Fascally, and the Butters of Gormock were a still older family in the same county. In 1331 we have record of the escheat of Adam Butir (ER., I, p. 356), and in 1360 William Butyr and Patrick Butirr are mentioned as collectors of contributions in Cowrie "super ylef" (ibid., II, p. 41). James Buttir, fisherman, received an ox-hide for making his currok (currach) in 1511 (Rent. Dunk., p. 117). Others of this name are mentioned in the Acts of Parliament and in Laing (Charters), and several individuals named Butter are mentioned in a charter of the lordship of Swinton of date 1656, and Butterlaw Loche, Butterlaw Syke, and Butterlaw Cairne are also named in the same charter (Swinton, p. cxciv-cxcv). John Buttyr deponed to the right boundaries of the Monk Myre in 1546 (Cupar-Angus, II, p. 4). The name is also recorded in Dunrossness, Shetland, in 1602 but is now extinct there (Mill, Diary, p. lxxxix, 187). It is also found in Orkney in the seventeenth century (Retours, Orkney and Shetland, 52, 58, etc.). The name is evidently of local origin (compare under Buttercase), and it occurs frequently in the records of the Diocese and Presbytery of Dunkeld. The Butter road (an old drove road across the Ochils, from Old Gaelic bother, a road for cattle) is in Kincardineshire.

1 the Old Teutonic pers. name Botthar, Bolhere, &c. = lit. Herald-Army [O.H.Ger. boto = Old Saxon bodo = Old English boda, herald, messenger + O.H.Ger. hart, heri = Old Saxon heri = Old English here, army] This name is found in Domesday Book as Boter-us.

2 a nickname from the Bittern (or the Bustard) [Middle English botor, botur, French butor, a bittern; prob. of Latin orig.] John le Botur.—Hundred Rolls 3 a nickname for a Butter-Seller [M-E. botere, Old English butere, Latin butyr-um] N.B.—In addition, in place-surnames this troublesome first element Butter- may be for the North. Diai, English b(o)urtree, ‘elder-tree.’

1, 2 [The first element in these pers. names may also be Old English bót = Old Saxon bóta, compensation, atonement, remedy]

Boterus and Botorus are found as personal names in Domesday.

In the U.S. there are both Butter and Butters. Butter Crambe, Butterlaw, Butterleigh, Butterley, Buttermere, Butterton, Butterwick, Butterworth, are local names in England. There is also Booterstown (in some documents Ballybotter, Ballyboother, Butterstown, and Boterstone) near Dublin, which some say was originally Freebooterstown, from its being the resort of these picturesque desperadoes. Lower says Boterus and Botorus are found as personal names in Domesday; but the name Butter may be from Gaelic bude, a house, mansion, habitation, &c.; or from Anglo-Saxon bode, a messenger; or perhaps rather from Gaelic bod-her, a noble or brave leader. Bod is found in several German names; as Bauto, Maroboduus, Merobaudes, Genebaudes.