Cutmore is my mother in laws maiden name, and this one name study is, in part, a tribute to her memory.  Her Cutmore ancestors  originated in Hartest, Suffolk, migrated to Sudbury and ended up in Birmingham, Warwickshire at the turn of the 20th century. 

So far I have found records of the name Cutmore as early as 1600, some of whom fell to the plague in 1666 Hartest.  There is much to learn about the Cutmore name, and how far reaching the name extends around the world. Please join me on this journey of discovery.

Here shown as my profile picture, is Gilbert Reuben George Cutmore, born 21 July 1897 Sudbury (photo is author's own collection).

Variations in spelling, some which might include the influence of local accents on the Cutmore name, (particularly those in early parish registers), include Cutmar, Cutmer, Catmer, Cudmore and Cuddemore.

Various reference works suggest different origins for the Cutmore name including Catmer, Cuddemore, Cudmore, Cutmar and Cutmer, as follows: 

CUT – from Cuthbert

taken from nicknames/nursenames

‘Pardon me if it offend anyone, for it is but my conjecture’[1]

CUTMORE see CATMUR

Catmur from Catmer: a location in Essex or see CATMORE

CATMORE a loc n. Berks[2]

CUDDAMORE, CUDDIMORE

John Cuddymore 1576 subsidiary rolls

Edward Cudmore

John Cuddamore 1642 Protestation returns Devon

From Cudmore Farm in Bampton, Devon[3].

CUTMORE see CUDMORE

CUDMORE – English (East Anglia): apparently a habitation name from an unidentified place so called, probably from the Old English personal name Cūđa (a short form of the various compound names with a first element cūđ famous, well known) + Old English mōr marsh, fen (see MOORE).  Whether this is borne out by the surrounding landscape would need to be considered. 

Variant CUTMORE[4]

[1] Camden (1605) p140

[2] Barber (1894) p113

[3] Reaney & Wilson (1958, 1991 ed)

[4] Hanks & Hodges (1988, 2002 ed) p152

Whilst Camden [1] does not provide an entry for CUTMORE OR CUDMORE, he suggests that CUT could be from Cuthbert as a nickname, and this could be just as likely an explanation. With the use of a phonetic search on the FreeBMD website, many plausible names were produced, including Cutmar, Cutmer, Catmer and Cuddemore.  CUDDEMORE is the name included in Reaney & Wilson [3], placing it from Cudmore Farm in Bampton, Devon and whether this is the place of origin is yet to be proven.

This is a scarce name according to the ONS List, with 1,046 occurrences for CUTMORE in recent times across England and Wales.  Entries in etymological books are equally scarce, and I believe prove rather inconclusive as to the origins, variants and meaning of the name.

Parish Registers include several early references to Cutmers and Cutmors in Hartest, Suffolk.  Other datasets link the family name to Bury St Edmunds and the parish of Poslingford.  My own family links the name to Hartest, Sudbury and then the Midlands, as the name distribution expanded from its original roots in East Anglia for the Cutmores, and possibly from Devon for the Cudmores.  

My own family connections with the CUTMORE name firmly place it in Suffolk, with records dating back to the 16^th century, where I have found a few instances of CUTMER. 

My conclusions so far are that CUTMORE has the most names in East Anglia, with a minority for CUDMORE and that the reverse is the case in Devon, with more CUDMORES and far fewer CUTMORES. Whether there is a connection between the two names and indeed the two geographical regions are the main questions to be addressed.  

According to modern studies the rarer the name, the more likely it to be monogenetic;  ie a surname deriving from one source.  This certainly could be the case with CUTMORE, and to find out from just where, is one of the goals of this study. 

In Hanks and Hodges [4], it is interesting that they claim CUTMORE to be the variant of CUDMORE, and they claim East Anglia to be the place of origin, with no mention of Devon and therefore contrary to my findings so far.