Bhat (also spelled as Bhatt or Butt) is a Brahmin surname used in the Indian subcontinent.
[2][3] While the original shortened rendition of "Bhatta" was "Bhat" or "Bhatt,"[4] many of the Kashmiri Brahmin migrants to the Punjab region started spelling their surname as "Butt", which is the transliteration of the name when written using the Urdu/Persian alphabet (as opposed to Bhat when using the Devanagari alphabet).
[8] Bhat, also spelled as Bhatt, Batt or Butt, is a Kashmiri Pandit surname found among the Saraswat Brahmins indigenous to the Kashmir Valley, as well as the Kashmiri Brahmins who migrated to Punjab,[5][6][9] a region now divided between India and the neighbouring Pakistan.
[5] The Bhats who migrated to Punjab in the late 19th century and the early 20th century due to the 1878 drought, were Brahmin migrants[5] from Kashmir, escaping discrimination by local rulers and seeking trade opportunities.
However, women frequently adopt their father's or husband's name and take it for successive generations.