Nolt
A surname likely shortened from the old personal name Arnold, with roots in medieval Dutch and German naming.
The #9,001 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,960 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally treated as a short form of the given name Arnold, reduced in medieval Dutch usage to Nolt or Nol(t). The older name Arnold itself comes from Germanic elements meaning roughly "eagle" and "power" or "ruler." In that sense, Nolt began as a familiar form meaning "Arnold's descendant" or "son of Arnold."
History
The name appears in scholarship on Dutch surnames as one of several shortened forms built from older baptismal names. It is also consistent with broader Germanic naming patterns, where brief pet forms often became inherited family names. In English-language records the surname is uncommon, but the same root has parallels in Dutch and Low German surname formation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A Dutch etymological note specifically lists Nolt as a reduced form of Arnold, showing how everyday nicknames could harden into surnames.
From the historical record
“umberland, and Salop. lohn di Fclione,™, Nolt^ M Ed; MoKdilen, Wuham, (o. Noff., 1349 = FP. "johinnei de Felloa, 1379 : P- T. Yorks.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances