The town was allegedly first called Krombegin (Skewed Beginning). One story told regarding the settlement's name goes as follows:
Voortrekkers who left the
Cape Colony 1838, had arrived in the Northern Cape at the place known today as “Putsonderwater”. As they stayed over there, it started to rain heavily. The water rose it covered the buckets of tar (called teerputs in Afrikaans) that were hung under the wagons, so the farmers called the place "Puts Onder Water" (“tar bucket under water”). This however does not explain the Dutch spelling of "Putzonderwater", and is considered a flight of fancy by
André Brink. Another version claims that a local called David Ockhuis dug a well in the 1880s but was loath to share the water with passers-by, and would claim that his well had no water. When the land was later divided, the one farm was called Putzonderwater and the other called Middelka. ==Railway station==