karenlesley wrote:

I know that the Americans call your bottom/backside the butt, so why call the pork shoulder that?
Karen

Check a dictionary.  Butt used to mean bottom is an informal use of the word.  It has many meanings, one being the blunt end of something.  Calling the rear end of a person a butt is a little crass, not really used in polite society.

eta:  It's not really a bad word used that way, but people who prefer to use polite language like my parents would tell us not to use that term because it sounds a little crude.  Today, no one would even blink at it being used that way because life imitates art and people imitate the lowest level of use of American English from films.  A pretty funny example was that when having dinner with a colleague a few times overseas, he was using the 'f' word out loud in a restaurant, assuming that Americans throw that word out in public loudly in any company because of the way it's used in films.  There are still people who would be deeply offended by that word in our culture, although I am not sure if it is as bad in British English?

Last edited by MsPablo (Sat 19 Jan 13 10:26pm)

I have tried to find a definitive reason behind the name before with no real luck.

I can give you the oft repeated internet folklore .   

During revolutionary and civil war times , cheaper cuts of meat including pork were packed in casks or Butts for transport.  Pork shoulder roasts that were cut in a specific way in boston eventually became known as boston butt .     Now  often called  pork butt or butt.