Footitt Family History

from Middle English fot-hot recorded as a vocabulary item only in an adverbial sense ‘in great haste’ but as a nickname it may alternatively have been adjectival ‘foot-hot hot or eager (in the) foot’ for someone quick on his feet or in a hurry.

For the formation compare Middle English fot lame ‘lame in the foot’ (MED at fōt n. 12 (a)) Armstrong (‘strong in the arm’) Brainwood (‘mad in the brain’) and the surname of Thomas Wombestrong (‘strong in the belly’) 1310 in MED at wōmb(e n. 9.

Spellings with -hate reflect northern Middle English retention of ā from Old English hāt ‘hot’.