Stoddart is an occupational surname for the man who kept the stock, built from Middle English stot and herde. Walk up Edinburgh's Royal Mile and you pass two bronzes by a modern bearer of it: the David Hume of 1996 and the Adam Smith of 2008, both by Alexander Stoddart, who has been the sovereign's Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland since December 2008.
It is a long way from a cattle byre to a plinth outside St Giles', and that distance is the point: this name describes work, and its bearers have done very different work ever since.
What Did a Stoddart Actually Do?
He herded animals, and the dictionaries are careful about which ones. The Oxford references treat Stoddart as a variant of Stoddard and gloss it as a keeper of cattle or horses, from Middle English stot, a steer, bullock or horse, plus herde, a herdsman.
The Scots evidence narrows it. The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue records stot from 1390 and defines it as "A young male (? usually, castrated) ox; a steer, bullock." On the Scottish side of the border a stot was a bullock rather than a horse, so a Stoddart was most plausibly a cattleman.
The horse reading is not wrong, but it belongs more securely to a neighbor: the same entry notes that Stothard may derive instead from a keeper of stud-horses, on stod. If you have been told your name means stud-herd, the honest version is that two related compounds sat side by side and the sources do not always separate them. Either way it is a stockman's name of the same family as Bowman and Shepherd, and a relative of Marshall, which began as a servant of horses before it climbed the social ladder.
Where Are the Scottish Stoddarts?
More widely spread than the Border reputation suggests. The 1901 census returned 1,402 Stoddarts in Scotland, ranking the name 554th. The Oxford references give the English footprint as Durham and Cumberland and the Scottish one as Midlothian and Lanarkshire.
That is worth stating plainly, because Stoddart is often introduced as a Roxburghshire name. The Border association is real but it comes mostly from where individual Stoddarts settled and made their reputations rather than from the dictionary's own geography. Nor is it a riding name: the standard lists of Anglo-Scottish Border reiver families do not include Stoddart. It is a northern occupational name that straddles the line.
Which Stoddarts Are Worth Knowing?
Kelso, a Borders town of a few thousand people, produced two of the most interesting.
Thomas Tod Stoddart was born in Argyle Square, Edinburgh, on 14 February 1810, son of Captain, later Admiral, Pringle Stoddart. He published a strange Gothic verse narrative, The Death-wake, or Lunacy: a Necromaunt in three chimeras, in 1831, then settled at Kelso in 1836 and never left. From there came The Art of Angling in 1835, Angling Songs in 1839 and The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lakes of Scotland in 1847, still in print half a century later. The Dictionary of National Biography credits him with "much delicacy of wrist, and a great knowledge of the haunts and habits of fish, besides being an adept at fly-making." He died at Kelso on 21 November 1880, after forty-four years within reach of the Buccleuch waters of the Tweed.
Jane Thompson Stoddart was born at Kelso on 2 November 1863. She joined William Robertson Nicoll in 1890 and became the working editor of The British Weekly while other people held the title, described afterward as a central force in shaping the Nonconformist conscience. She wrote The Girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots in 1908, published her memoir My Harvest of the Years in 1938, and died in Edinburgh on 15 December 1944.
Alexander Stoddart, born in Edinburgh in 1959, completes the set. Besides the Hume and the Smith he made the James Clerk Maxwell on George Street, the John Witherspoon monument at Paisley with a copy at Princeton, and the Robert Louis Stevenson memorial on Corstorphine Road.
What About Stodart, Stoddard and Studdert?
One entry covers them all. Stoddard, Stodart, Studdert, Stothart, Stothard, Studart and Stuttard form a single spelling cluster, and Studdert is the form that took root in Ireland, particularly in County Clare.
Stodart carries the oddest footnote. The London pianoforte firm founded by Robert Stodart around 1776 took out a patent in 1777 for an instrument combining harpsichord and pianoforte principles, and Grove's dictionary notes that this document contains the first known use of the word "grand" applied to a pianoforte. Every grand piano since is, in a small way, named by a Stodart patent.
How Do You Research a Stoddart Line?
- Search Stoddart, Stoddard, Stodart, Stothart, Stothard and Studdert together, then separate them by county before you draw any conclusion.
- Work Midlothian and Lanarkshire as seriously as Roxburghshire, and treat Durham and Cumberland as live options rather than foreign ground.
- If your line is Irish and spells itself Studdert, start in County Clare rather than in Scotland.
- Start at any certificate after 1855 and climb, with our piece on civil registration and our guide to ScotlandsPeople.
Own a Piece of Stoddart Heritage
Bronze on the Royal Mile, a rod on the Tweed, an editor's chair in London: bearers of a cattleman's job title went in every direction with it. You will find that title on a mug, on a garden flag and inside a silver-framed ornament, family crest over woven tartan. There is no chief here and no pattern was laid down for Stoddart, so the cloth is a look rather than a legacy, and our guide to what tartan custom actually asks shows how little it binds.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Stoddart Name
Does Stoddart mean a keeper of horses?
Partly. The dictionaries gloss it as a keeper of cattle or horses, and in Scots the underlying word stot means a bullock. The specific stud-horse reading attaches more securely to the related name Stothard.
Is Stoddart a Border surname?
It has a strong Borders presence, but the reference works put its Scottish weight in Midlothian and Lanarkshire and its English weight in Durham and Cumberland. It is a northern name rather than a Roxburghshire one.
Is there a Clan Stoddart?
No. Occupational surnames of this type arose separately wherever the job existed, so no single kindred stands behind them, and none has a chief.
Sources and Further Reading
- Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: stot — the Scots word from 1390 and the bullock definition quoted above.
- Oxford Dictionary of Family Names: Stoddart — the compound, the counties and the variants.
- Stoddart in the 1901 Scottish census — 1,402 bearers, ranked 554th.
- Dictionary of National Biography: Thomas Tod Stoddart — his dates and the angling books.
- Jane T. Stoddart — Kelso 1863 and The British Weekly.
- Alexander Stoddart — the 2008 appointment and the sculpture.
- Grove's Dictionary: Stodart — the 1777 patent and the first use of "grand".
- ScotlandsPeople — registers, censuses and valuation rolls.
How many surnames begin in a byre and finish on a plinth outside St Giles'?
Explore our Stoddart family gifts collection for a meaningful way to celebrate the name.