[1] It comes from the adjective ahtam and means "a man whose two front teeth are broken off at the root", that is, one who cannot trace his ancestry.
There is little reliable information on the origins of the Hutaym, which is consistent with the name's being a derogatory term applied by outsiders to socially low-ranking groups.
One story, however, attributes their pariah status to an act of incest by the eponymous ancestor Hutaym, who was presumably an Arab.
[1] The term Hutaym first appears in Arabic literature around 1200, then again in Ottoman tax records of the early 16th century.
By the 19th century, as recorded by several European travellers, the term being used to describe a low caste and not a specific tribe.