This is a surname of German origins. It would appear to originate from the same "ornamental" group as Ollenbaum, Ollenborg, Ollendarp and Ollendorf. These all contain the Norse-Viking pre 8th century name Olling, also recorded as Ollen and Ollin, plus various different suffix such as baum meaning tree, or berg and borg, a mountain. Ornamental surnames are usually of 18th century origins, and usually do not have a specific meaning. In that respect they are similar to the British doubled barrelled name in that whilst the individual elements have their own meaning, when conjoined they are meaningless. In this case the suffix of "buttel" may be the Middle Age word meaning "bailiff" or it could derive from the older word "buddel" meaning bottle. However the conjecture is further qualified by the fact that we have not been able to find a specific recording as Ollenbuttel in German or Netherlands registers. This may mean that the conjoining of Ollen and Buttel is historically quite recent, and therefore later than our research facilities which are medieval. What we do know is that the prefix as Olin is first recorded in the German registers in 1398, when Contz Olin of Walterhofen is so recorded, whilst slightly earlier in 1389 Johann Buttel appears as a burger of Himmelspforte.

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