This ancient and intriguing name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Old English personal name or byname, "Budda". There is some confusion about the original meaning of the name; it may reflect the use of the Old English pre 7th century "budde", bud, swelling, as a nickname for a plump or thickset person, or it may also have been used as a nickname for someone with some fancied resemblance to a beetle, from the Old English "budda", beetle. The first recording, below, is strictly speaking that of a byname, and the entry describes the person as being "so called because of his thickness". The personal name Budda appears in a number of English placenames, such as Budbrooke, in Warwickshire, and Budworth in Cheshire, and has generated a variety of derivative surnames, among them the diminutive form's, Budcock, and the patronymics Budds and Budding. The marriage of one Bartholomew Budd and Mary Smyth was recorded at St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, in London, on February 4th 1573. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Brihtmerus Budde, which was dated circa 1025, in the Register of Old English Bynames, Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Canute, 1016 - 1035. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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