Introduction
to the Name Smout.
The name Smout is not very common in the United
Kingdom. I obtained an Internet White Pages
listing, ( www.mamma.com
) one that has combed the telephone books and and electoral rolls of the UK,
and the total number of entries was 191. This listing does not appear to
contain any Scottish entries, although we know of a number of people named
Smout who live in Scotland.
To read the list of UK Smout's, click here. Smout
White Pages Listing.
Smout Background and History
Some of my immediate family are listed in the directory above, some are not.
In our family, consisting of myself, my two brothers, my parents, and our own
children, we number 12 people aged between 2 and 76years of age. We only know
of a small number of others named Smout to whom we are directly related, some
of these are in the UK,
others live in Australia.
Our family tree has links to many other Smouts who we do not know, including
the family of Sir Aurthur Smout, at one time a group director of ICI and a
prominent industrialist in the UK
in the mid 20th Century era. We are also related to the Scottish historian,
Professor T. C. Smout who is one of Arthur Smout's sons.
The family name Smout, although unusual, is very old in the UK,
going back at least 500 years. There are records of Smouts living in Worthen
& Pontesbury in the English county
of Shropshire as long ago as 1500.
Many of the Smouts shown in the listing above live in or around the midlands
region of the UK.
My father and grandfather were from the Walsall, Dudley,Wolverhampton
area north of Birmingham, and their
ancestors appear to have come from the Shropshire area
west of Shrewsbury, surrounding
Pontesbury,Westbury and Worthen. The family tree thus far traced, goes back to
at least 1500, but has not been independently verified.
Smouts outside the UK.
- Europe. The name Smout
is also found in Holland and Belgium.
It may be that ancestors of the UK Smout families came from there. A
common variation of the Smout name
in Holland is Smouter. Other variations which
are probably connected are, Smouten and
Smoute.
- Click
here to find out more about the Dutch name Smouter.
- Canada & USA. The Mormons also list a large number
American émigrés named Smout in the Salt
Lake City area, from the mid 1800's until the
late 1980's.Go to www.familysearch.org
to view the Church Of the Later Day Saints site.
Some of these émigrés were born and baptised in, or nearby Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, Sedgely or Dudley
in the midlands. People named Smout have been in contact from the USA
and Canada. You can read their messages, along with messages from
other Smouts, on the Message Board.
Origins
of the Name ' Smout'. What does it mean?
There are various theories as to the origins of the name Smout, but I
have no proof that any are true. What can be said is that it is an unusual
surname!
Possible meanings;
- A medieval Dutch/
Flemish name, meaning "a butcher, especially of whale meat."
- A working name given
to men who washed or processed wool to remove the natural grease or lanolin, that is; greasing men.
- A working name given
to men working in the Dutch printing industry.
- A Scots name, meaning
a person of small stature, (Being a small person, Robert Louis Stevenson
was known to friends as 'Smout')
- A late medieval
English name, given to émigrés from Europe, (again
Flemish or Hugenots are suspected), who had skills in steel making,
particularly sword making, and who settled in the area near Shrewsbury
and Telford. Steel and Iron manufacture began
there around the year 1500.
- One Smout thinks it
may have connections with PIRATES
Do you have evidence of other possible meanings
for this unusual name?
MAKE CONTACT WITH OTHER SMOUTS
- If your surname is 'Smout' I would like to hear from you.
- You may like to e-mail me
with any questions about the family name
'Smout'.
- If you can supply any
information about the Family Name 'Smout',
I should be interested to hear from you.
- You may email me via this link
You can join the Smout E-mail list.
A Smout Family Tree.
I have begun to compile a Computerised Family Tree for my branch of the Smout family. I cannot guarantee any of the
information before 1900, but after that date it should be accurate.
You can either view the tree on-line as web pages, or you can download the
files containing the information I have collated.
- Click to View Smout Family
Tree On Line website.
- To download smout.gen
format Family Tree File click here. smout.gen
You will need to use a family tree program, such as 'Genius' to view the
data in the smout.gen file. If you have problems interpreting the data, please
e-mail me.
This Smout family tree contains information collected in the UK
by Brenda Smout, of Perth, Australia.
She looked into parish records in the town of Westbury,
Shropshire. Brenda is my fathers' cousin, her father
being my own Grandfathers' brother. I am indebted to Brenda for the information
she has collected
Problems with data? E-mail, Graham Smout.
SMOUT
MESSAGE BOARD PAGE
PERSONS WHO E-MAIL SMOUT FAMILY
HISTORY DETAILS WILL BE ASKED IF THEY WILL AGREE TO THE MESSAGE BEING AVAILABLE
ON A SEPERATE WEB PAGE.
PERSONS WHO DO NOT AGREE WILL NOT
HAVE THEIR MESSAGE PUBLISHED.
These files will be updated if I
recieve further information.
Search Engines may be useful;
Please
Note:
These
pages are under development. There may be errors and mistakes. If you spot any, please
e-mail to,