In keeping with traditional British themes the name is based on a well known saying , “The Whole Kit and Boodle”, now sadly Americanised to:

“The Whole Kit and Caboodle”. The word Boodle being changed to Caboodle to give the saying an alliterative quality.

The ‘Kit’ was a pocket fiddle used by dancing masters from between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was so called because it could be carried with its small bow, in the coat pocket. Kit also has also come to mean one’s equipment, so ‘the whole kit’ ( recorded in Grose’s dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) in effect could mean ‘all the equipment’.

‘Boodle’ is said to derive from the Dutch ‘boedel’, meaning inheritance, possessions, property or pile of money ( in fact Boodle is now a relatively modern word in America meaning money illegally gained). It is more likely however, that Boodle comes from the old English meaning of bunch or bundle.

Therefore we have Kit meaning fiddle and Boodle meaning the rest of the bunch of instruments