Family name origins & meanings
- Perhaps an Americanized spelling of German Gütlein, a status name for a smallholder, from Middle High German guot ‘landholding’, ‘small farm’ + the diminutive suffix -lein -li, -lin. Alternatively, Güthlein and Güthling may be from a nickname for a good and kindly person, from Middle High German güetlich, later changed as though derived from a personal name composed with Germanic god, got ‘god’ or gōd ‘good’.