This surname is derived from a nickname. 'one who strutted'. Sobriquets from gait or peculiarities of walking are endless. The reason is obvious; they gave individuality, readily seized upon when it became manifest that surnames were necessary to eke out identity.

Simon Strut, Close Rolls, 48 Henry III.

John le Strut (also John Strutt), Wiltshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Strut, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

William Strut Huntingdonshire, ibid.

1762. Married — John McDonald and Esther Strutt: St. George, Hanover Square.

Probably of recent introduction from England. An old and distinguished surname in Essex, from the fifteenth century. Explained by Harrison as 'stiff, pompous.'

(Teutonic) Stiff, Pompous [Low Ger. Strutt, stiff, etc.: cp. Old English strútian, to be stiff, and Old Norse strút-r, a pointed hood] In the Hundred-Rolls the same individual is referred to as ‘John le Strut' and ‘John Strutt.’ See also the quotation from Spenser under Stocks.

"Ye’ll find a pretty many stubs about when ye gets into de wood”.—Dict. Kent. Dialectal, p. 166.

From the Flemish, Stroot; from the German, Struttmann; a personal name.

Strutt is an old and often distinguished Essex name. The Strutts held lands in Wickham St. Pauls in the 15th, loth and 17th centuries (M.). Sir Denner Strutt, baronet, of Little Warley Hall, in 1641 owned the manor of Little Warley (M.); Mr. John Strutt, of Biley Mills, in 1743 came into the possession of an estate in Snoreham parish (M.), which his descendants have held up to recent times (W.). Maldon was represented in Parliament in the middle of last century by John Strutt of Terling and by his son early in the present century, a family since ennobled (W.). John Strut of Hadley, Suffolk, held the manor of Picotts in Ardley parish, Essex, in the 17th century (M.). Strutt was a common name in Derbyshire last century, especially in Blackwell; the Strutts of Derby then obtained eminence for their inventions in connection with the weaving trade (Glover's "Derbyshire"). In the 13th century the name of Strut or Strutt was represented in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Wilts (H. B.).