Curtis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine given name or surname of English origin used to identify individuals
2. A proper noun typically employed as a personal or family name in English-speaking contexts
3. A common English-language personal identifier used as either a first name or last name for persons

Etymology: The given name Curtis descends from an adjective that once described manners rather than people. Old French "corteis" and "curteis" meant courteous, polite, or well-bred, and the French descendant "courtois" still carries that sense today. English took the word as a surname and later as a first name, so the name is essentially a courtesy title turned into an identity: a boy named Curtis was, in origin, a boy described as gracious. The adjective itself is a doublet of "courteous," meaning the two English words came into the language by separate routes from the same source and kept different shapes and uses. "Courteous" arrived as a learned borrowing in one line of descent, while "Curtis" followed the more everyday path that wore its vowels down into the form we recognise.