Submitted Surname Revision History

As a Scottish surname, this is either a habitational name for a person from the village of Guthrie near Forfar, itself from Gaelic gaothair meaning "windy place" (a derivative of gaoth "wind") and the locative suffix -ach, or alternatively it might possibly be an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mag Uchtre meaning "son of Uchtre", a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps related to uchtlach "child".

As an Irish surname, it was adopted as an English translation of Gaelic Ó Fhlaithimh "descendant of Flaitheamh", a byname meaning "prince". This is the result of an erroneous association of the Gaelic name in the form Ó Fhlaithimh (Fh- being silent) with the Gaelic word laithigh "mud", and of mud with gutters, and an equally erroneous association of the Scottish surname Guthrie with the word gutter.