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.
