Explore the Family Name Sudds

The meaning of Sudds

English (Kent): 1. variant of the now rare or extinct Kent name Sudd, with post-medieval excrescent -s, unless Sudd is in fact a shortened form of Sudds. Sudd may arise from Middle English sudde ‘mud, bog’ (Old English sydde), though the expected dialect form in Kent would be sedde. 2. alternatively, a variant of the northeastern England name Suddes, which may have reached Kent through the coastal trade down eastern England. Suddes is probably also a variant of Sudd, with post-medieval excrescent -s and may be a topographic name from Middle English sudde ‘mud, bog’ (Old English sydde) but the expected form in northeastern England would be sidde. Alternatively, Sudd might be from Middle English shudde, sudde (Old English scydde) ‘small house, hovel’ or ‘shed’ (for animals), ‘pigsty’ (see Shedd), but again the expected form in northeastern England would be sid(de) or shidde.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.