Wyatt

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine first name or family name of English origin, borne by people such as the American lawman Wyatt Earp
2. A male personal name, also used as a surname, traditionally of English origin and associated with notable historical figures
3. Used as a masculine given name or family name, of English origin, as with the poet Thomas Wyatt of the Tudor era

Etymology: "Wyatt" began as a given name rather than a common word. It descends from the Old English personal name Wigheard, built from "wīg", meaning "war", and "heard", meaning "hard" or "brave". A name meaning something like "brave in battle" was a sensible thing to give a child in Anglo-Saxon England, where warrior virtues were prized. Over the Middle Ages the name was worn down into a pet form. English speakers used it as a diminutive of Guy and William, so a man called Wyatt might have been christened as one of those, with the shortened form serving as a familiar nickname. That gave a single name two sources, which is why it appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Norman-influenced forms in the records.