Hi all, I received this email today re the Puddephatt name, does this make more sense ? "The Puddephatt Name My Mother always said that when she was at school other children called her �Pudding Fat� � which is hardly surprising as her surname was Puddephatt. This nickname was not far off the original derivation of the name. The first element of the name �Pudde� is probably the dialectal �puddy� or �poddy� which in Old English meant round or stout in the belly . This came from the Germanic root �pud(d) meaning to swell or bulge (eg as found in the word �pudding� � which is something that swells up when cooked). In Low German the word �puddig� meant thick or stumpy. In Old English the word �puduc� meant a wen (ie a fat spot or lump) and the dialectal �pod� was used to describe a large protuberant belly (in which form it still is often used). In Modern English peas grow in a pod that swells up as the peas inside ripen. It is clear that the second element �Phatt� is not �foot� but �fat� from the Old English �fat� meaning a vessel. With the introduction of the letter �v� into English (it was not used in Old German) this word became our �vat� meaning tub or cask. So someone given the name Puddephatt would be a person with a prominent paunch. In medieval England the �d� would have been pronounced as a �t�. Thus Pudifat (and Puddephatt) would have been pronounced �putifat� or even �putifet� . The �t� pronunciation lives on in modern English words such a pot and potty - a fat pot (or Pudifat) that goes under the bed. The earliest reference to the name that I can locate is one Roger Pudifat in Cambridgeshire in 1188. The same gentleman (or someone of the same name) reappears in Hertfordshire in 1233. In 1212 there was a Herbert Pudifat in Yorkshire and in 1213 a Richard Pudefed in Oxfordshire. As spelling did not start to become standardised until the 17th century and as spoken English underwent a great vowel shift some two centuries earlier there are many different written versions of the name. These include: Puddephatt, Puddifoot, Pudifoot, Puddefoot, Pudefat, Pudifat and Podifat It would appear that the surname in its many different forms was largely restricted to the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. So it would appear that for the past 1000 years the Puddephatts have not been great travellers." Clive Gates --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals