Translation please

[Mary E. Leveille]

When my son was a little baby, my father gave him a nickname. I don't know the correct spelling, but it sounded like hunta hut. I was told that it meant something like little elf but I can't find the translation anywhere. He also called me nytta Does that mean good or something similar?  Thank you for any help.

[Ann Little]

Hi Mary,
 
I know of no Swedish nicknames or endearments such as the ones you mention above; but as I don't know from where in Sweden your father came, I can't be 100% certain. The word 'nytta' usually means 'usefulness', 'doing something useful'; I doubt that your father would have chosen to call you that. Could it have been 'pytta' as in 'little pytta'? My father sometimes called me 'lilla pyttan', which means something like, ' little pot/ bucket'. I suppose that the nearest expression in English would be, 'little basket'.
 
I'm afraid that I have no real idea of what ' hunta hut 'could be, but will hazard a guess; 'plutte lutt'; sounds rather silly but comes from 'plutt' and 'plutten', meaning a very small boy and one would have said something like; 'what a cute little plutt'. Sometimes a boy might actually have been known, within the family, as ' Plutten' ( i.e. The Plutt) when very young.  
 
Kind regards
Ann