Curtis

Curtis is a surname that is also fairly commonly used as a given name for boys. The surname has two origins, and therefore, two meanings. One version comes from the Old French corties, which meant "courteous" or "polite." Its use as a surname came from its occasional use as a nickname for someone with good manners (or sarcastically for someone who most definitely did not have good manners.) By "nickname" in these cases we really mean more of a post-title in most cases, I think. For instance, our imaginary well-mannered William might be referred to as "William the Corties." This sort of nickname was often given simply because half the male population of England was named William or John, so they needed descriptors to differentiate between them. Some of these nicknames migrated to surname use. The other origin of Curtis worked in exactly the same way, only this time the nickname meant someone who was short, or possibly someone who wore short stockings or breeches. This version is simply derived from the Middle English word "curt," which still means "short" today, sort of-- but we use it to describe speech, rather than a physical characteristic. "None of your business," he replied curtly. Curtis was popular enough to be a top 100 name through the middle decades of the 20th century, and is still in the top 500 today. It is occasionally spelled Kurtis, in which case the obvious nickname is Kurt.