Malt Family History

From the Middle English female personal name Mald or Maud, an Anglo-Norman French form of Continental Germanic Mahthild(is) (from *maht- ‘power might’ + *hild- ‘battle’). The Germanic name developed two distinct forms in Old French Matild and Mahild. The first was the basis for its usual Latin forms Matildis and Matilda. It appears in Middle English as Matild and Matill, giving rise to the surnames Mattle and Mattleson, both of which are now extinct.

Matill had several pet forms which survive in the surnames Till, Tillson, Tillet, Tillotson, Tilcock, and perhaps Tilly. The alternative Old French form Mahild developed to Mahald, Mahalt, Mahaud, and Mahold. These were the most common versions of the name in Anglo-Norman England, appearing in Middle English in the reduced forms Maald, Mald, and Malt (from Mahald), Maud (from Mahaud), and Mold (from Mahold), hence the surnames Malt, Malde, Maude, and Mould.

From the mid-13th to the early 15th century, the personal name was popular with all classes of English families, among whom the name was commonly pronounced and written as Mall or Moll. Pet forms with the diminutive suffixes -et, -ot, -in, -y, and -kin gave rise to Malin, Malkin, Mallet, Mallot, Mally, and Mollet.

In Northern England, the typical surname forms are Maudson, Maulson, Moulson, and Malkinson, occasionally perhaps a reduced form of Mallett.