Recorded in the spellings of Butten, Button, Butner, Buttoner, Bottoner, and the dialectal Bottomer, this is an English occupational surname, but of French pre 9th century origins. Introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, it is a metonymic occupational name for someone who made or sold buttons. The derivation is from the Old French word "bouton", or the later Middle English "boton". Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and only later became hereditary. This surname is first recorded in the late 13th Century (see below), and other early recordings taken from authentic surviving rolls and charters include: Ambrose Button of Wiltshire, listed in the Register of the University of Oxford for the year 1568, and in 1589 the same register lists Richard Button of Staffordshire. Later recordings include: Thomas Button, an early namebearer to settle in the New England colonies of America. He appears in a list of those 'living in Virginia in February 1623', as a resident of 'the plantation over against James Cittie', whilst Rosetta Bottomer, the daughter of William Bottomer, is recorded at the church of St Sepulchre, city of London, on March 24th 1810. The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of William Boton, which was dated 1296, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Sussex". This was during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024