The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18

the Old Morse bjartr, Gothic bairhts, Anglo-Saxon beorht, English bright and bert In personal names as Albert. Gilbert, Wilbert, etc. More remote cognates are the Cymric berth and Irish bertach, shining" Lithuanian barth, white" Avestan brazaiti and Sanskrit bhrajati. shine"
 It Is found before the sixth century as a frequent component in personal names among the Lombards, Franks, Bavarl- ans and Anglo-Saxons,
 Knott, Note, Mute. Mutt.
 Many surnames are of muitplex origin. Bell, for instance, has a per fectly demonstrable three-fold origin: or Ball, three origins are provable and two more are highly probable. making A probable quintuple origin. This IS extreme, but surnames Of double anu even triple origin are not uncommon n'
 In the case of Knott. there IS prop able double, a possible triple origh:
 Undoubtedly many or eur hnVis .Se bear a local surname indicating the reEideneeof a remote forbear "at the knot" The knot is "a rocky nili oI eninence of a moderate height. me me tpYyn is freouent in place e-names ln 'he northwest of England .,a
 This Is presumably the orlgin oI sne surname Knotte, Chnotte Sno i nno' on the Hundred Rolls or Snropaa' o; Huntin nEdonshire and Norfolk ana ot that of the old DerbyshIre family or the present day.
 knott in this instance. Is of similar origin with Knapp. Knaggs, hnowaeo' etc. all demonstrably of local origin:
 This Knot is .he Anglo-saxon cnot- ta. Middle English cnot. cnotte, Kno.'s. knott and knot. defined above. rms .s eoenate with the. old Morse knutr' Danish knude, Swedish knut, Dutch knof Old High German chnodo' Chnoto and German knoten. meanlns l "a knot either natural Con the pouT or pfants) or artificial ton threao' | moose. etc.)
 Other Knotts bear a patronymic sur name indicating their descent rom | Dane named Knud or Knut rms was . freouent personal name among the | old Danes and Is still In use. In Eng | land this name was spelled Cnut ana 1 rsnud and was found there century l and a half before the great Dane Oi l that name mounted the EngiIsh throne and gave prestige and vogue 10 the | name. tha Domesday Book as tenants in the time of Edward the Confessor. Ans lands were in Derbyshire, Nottingham | shire and Yorkshire.
 To these perhaps belong the Rnotte Notte and KEot Of the Yorkshire Foll | Tax List of 1873. as ne derivatiVs l Nottson was found there at that tim' and still survives. This name was frequently spelled Note in the thirteenth century and an, | pears in this form both as personal l name and a surname on the Hundred Rolls Tho derivative patronymfcs Nottson. Noteson,. Nutson, Nutkins, etc. preclude any other explanation Of ita 1 origin than that from a personal name l and the only one known at the time that could produce these derivatives was Cnut.
 This is the origin of our surnames Mute and Mutt, both found as Mute on the Yorkshire Tax List of 1873. It Is i also the origin of some of our Nuts. l This old personal name is found in l the Old Morse iA the Landnama-bok of Iceland at hnutr. It will be seen that ] this and the Swedish Knut(e) and the Danish forms already given coincide with the forms cited above for these respective languages as cognate-- with knot. Their meaning also Is the same "a knot, protuberanee, hill" So Cnut is of the same origin as Knott. the. To- i cal surname.
 The rest of the Notts and Knotts, not already disposed of. bear a sur l name that was originally a nickname | iindicating a nott-headed ancester. onG | who had his hair closely cropped So Chaucer Prol. to c. T. 109) de- l scribes his yeoman as "A not-hee | hadde he with a brown visage," and | in Henry TV., II. iv. 7s. Prince Henry calls F'alstafr Thou hott-pated fooi.' The great number of le Nottes on the Hundred Rolls is ample proof of the nickname and indicates that this is the origin of the surname Mott in