Stout surname meaning

Stout is an English nickname from Middle English stout, “bold, daring, brave,” borrowed from Old French estolt or estout (Anglo-Norman estut, estot, estout), which could also shade into fierce, stubborn, or randy. Stote and Stoute are southwestern variants. A rarer reading uses stout for a gnat or horse-fly, and a few Devon farms named from “stumpy hillock” offer a habitational path that barely survives. Nickname is the clear lead, and the boldness sense is high confidence in standard surname dictionaries.