The name  Clutterbuck  comes from either the old Nordic phrase   klart bäck   or the similar sounding Flemish phrase,  hluttor beck;  both of which translate in meaning to ‘a clear brook.’

  klart   or hluttor  = clear or pure

   bäck  or beck  = a brook or stream

Both of these languages were derived from old German.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, as the need for family names began to evolve, it was customary to name a person according to the village or town they were from or from some kind of local geographical feature close by. In this way, the original holder of the name  Clutterbuck  would most likely have lived near a clear stream, so this geographical feature was adopted as a second name to distinguish them from others of the same first name.

In Anglo-Saxon, the initial ‘h’ was pronounced with quite a strong sounding aspiration, and so the name Hluttor Beck evolved into “Cluterboc” or “Cloterboke” before being anglicised to the modern day form of “Clutterbuck”.