Holt (surname)

Etymology

Holt is a surname and placename, of Proto-Germanic origin and meaning a small wood or grove of trees.[1] It derives from the Old English word holt and is a near-synonym of "wold" (from Old English wald), originally denoting a forested upland. Those words are cognates of the modern German words "Holz" and "Wald" respectively.

The word is also found in Scandinavian placenames and in surnames derived from them: in Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic as Holt (or the more archaic Danish Holdt and Holte); in Swedish as Hult or Hulte; and even in Finnish as Hulti (a loanword from Swedish). It is often used in combination with other words, as in Uhrenholdt ("ancient holt", a Danish last name taken from that of an estate) or Älghult ("elk holt"), a village and the site of a small art-glass factory in Småland, Sweden. In Sweden it is most commonly found in and around Småland, including Älmhult, the location of the first IKEA store.

Another spelling of the name is "Hoult", more commonly found in the north of England than in the south, indicating that it is more likely in this case to be derived directly from Old Norse.

Related German names include Holz, Holzman, Holzhauer, et al., and their anglicized equivalents which often insert a "t" between the "l" and the "z".

Notable people named Holt (including alternative spellings and derivations)

Places with name Holt (or derivative forms)
gollark: > it should be apiform not apioformWho cares about "vowels"?
gollark: !lyricly☭demote☭establish☭communism! does not, in actuality, exist.
gollark: ```lisp(load-and-use SDL)(defn tick [state] (+ state 10))(defn draw [app rend state] (bg rend &(rgb (/ @state 2) (/ @state 3) (/ @state 4))))(defn main [] (let [app (SDLApp.create "The Minimalistic Color Generator" 400 300) state 0] (SDLApp.run-with-callbacks &app SDLApp.quit-on-esc tick draw state)))```SDL bindings, cool.
gollark: carp apparently does "ownership tracking" so it seems rustacean.
gollark: I should randomly implement this language in potatOS, fun.

See also

References
  1. "A Genealogical History of the Holt Family in the United States" Page 5, 1864
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