Butler (surname)

Butler (surname)

Butler is a surname that has been associated with many different places and people. It can be either:

• an English occupational name that originally denoted a servant in charge of the wine cellar, from the Norman French word butuiller. It eventually came to be used to describe a servant of high responsibility in a noble household, mostly leaving behind its association with the supply of wine.
• in Ireland, a noble family and dynasty
• a German surname, originating in Prussia before the 11th century, that gained notoriety in the High Middle Ages.
• an Anglicisation of the French surname Boutilier, Bouthillier, a cognate of the English name.