Which is correct – Arbuthnott or Arbuthnot?
They both are. In olden times spelling was unimportant and indeed, was the preserve of clerics. There is one document in which the name is spelled “Arbuthnot” and “Arbuthnott” and “Arbuthnoth”. The head of the family and most Arbuthnots in Scotland spell it “Arbuthnott”. Arbuthnots outnumber Arbuthnotts by about 9 to 1. The older form was certainly Arbuthnot and the name is thus spelt throughout Principal Alexander Arbuthnot’s MS. History of the Arbuthnot Family finished about 1567. The family took the surname from the place name not the other way round. We think the village name is spelled with two “t”s because when the Ordnance Survey visited the local Lord to ask how the name was spelled, he said it was spelled Arbuthnott.
