Where the Butler name comes from

Butler began as an English occupational name, from the Norman French butuiller, the word for the servant who ran the wine cellar. The English surname itself comes down through Middle English Butler. The job climbed over time: a butler came to mean a servant of high responsibility in a noble household, and the association with supplying wine mostly fell away. A second Butler is an Anglicized form of the French surname Boutilier, Boutillier or Bouthillier, a cognate of the English name. A third route runs through German and Swiss-German, where surnames including Beutler, Butler and Beidler were Anglicized the same way.

In Ireland, Butler is the name of a noble family and dynasty associated with the counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny and parts of County Carlow. They were seated at Kilkenny Castle and at Cahir Castle.