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1. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a pit or hollow (see Pitt) + -er, suffix denoting an inhabitant.
2. German: variant of Peter.
3. Jewish (from Ukraine): metonymic occupational nanme from Yiddish dialect piter ‘butter’. Compare >

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> Putterman.
1. North German (Püttermann): variant of Püttmann (see > Putman).
2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a dairyman or seller of butter, from northeastern Yiddish puter ‘butter’ + man ‘man’.

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> Putman
1. English: variant of Pitman ‘dweller by the pit or hollow’, formed with Middle English putte, a dialect form common in southern and southwestern England.
2. Dutch: from put ‘pit’ or ‘well’ + man ‘man’, a topographic name for someone who lived by such a feature, or a habitational name derived from a minor place named with the term.
Americanized spelling of North German Püttmann, a topographic name cognate with 2.

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(Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press)