This interesting and unusual name is a metronymic occupational name for a 'fluter' deriving from the Olde French 'flautte-' or the Middle English 'floute' to play on the flute, or flute player. 'There mightest thou see these flutours, minstrales, and eke jogelours' Chaucer. The surname from this source is recorded early in the 13th Century, and in the modern idiom the variants include Flewitt, Flewett, Flowitt, Fluit. Across the Atlantic the common form is Flauter. One Ann Flute, the infant daughter of Thomas and Hulda Flute was christened in St. Dunstans Church, Stepney, London in 1623. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Arnulf Flouter, which was dated 1224 Pipe Rolls of Derbyshire, during the reign of King Henry III, The Frenchman, 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.