Name Origins

 Name Origins

by Julie Helen Otto, Staff Genealogist of NEHGS

NUSS (m): Nuss S. Butterfield (d. 1839) of Stockbridge, Vt. (Hartford Probate District, Vt.; with thanks to Scott Andrew Bartley, who brought this name to my attention many years ago). Mr. Butterfield’s first name is probably a truncated form of some name with –nus as an element, perhaps the final syllable (e.g. Oceanus), a construction that abounds in both Latin and Greek. NUSS might also be a derivative of Celtic NAOISE (pronounced something like NEE-sheh), a name borne in ancient Ireland by the lover of Deirdre. I rather suspect a classical, or commemorative, derivation in this case.