Agutter

Recorded as Aguter, Agutter, Gother, Gouthier, Goutier, Gouter, and possibly others, this is a rare surname. It can be either French of Roman origins, or English of French and also Roman origins. It was probably introduced into the British Isles after the Norman-French Conquest of 1066, but could have entered a thousand years earlier with the Romans. It is a name which is recognized through much of the world because of the famous actress Jenny Agutter. "Rare" in etymological terms describes a name which has fewer than two thousand nameholders, and this certainly seems to be the case with this surname. It is not recorded in any of the popular dictionaries of British surnames, although it does appear in Hanks & Hodges "A Dictionary of Surnames" which is believed to record over seventy thousand names world wide. Unfortunately it rarely quotes any sources or reference points. This surname derives from the Latin word "guttaria" and the later French "goutiere", and means a channel or pipe, and hence the modern word gutter. As such it could be topographical and describe a person who lived by "a gutter" or possibly be occupational for a maker of pipes or waterways. It is unclear as to when the surname was first recorded although William Gother appears in the register of St Martins Ludgate in the city of London, on December 20th 1607, whilst Radulphi Agutter and his wife Elizabeth are recorded at the famous church of St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on September 25th 1676.