Holt

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late Middle English (in holt1 (sense 2)): variant of hold1.

wiktionary

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From Middle English holt, from Old English holt(“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-Germanic *hultą(“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād-(“timber, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *kola-, *klā-(“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”).

Cognate with Scots holt(“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt(“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout(“timber, wood”), Dutch hout(“wood, timber”), German Holz(“wood”), Icelandic holt(“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill(“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος(kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Albanian shul(“door latch”). Doublet of hout.

etymonline

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holt (n.)

Old English holt "woods, forest, grove, thicket," common in place names, from Proto-Germanic *hultam- (source also of Old Frisian, Old Norse, Middle Dutch holt, Dutch hout, German Holz "a wood, wood as timber"), from PIE *kldo- (source also of Old Church Slavonic klada "beam, timber;" Russian koloda, Lithuanian kalada "block of wood, log;" Greek klados "twig;" Old Irish caill "wood"), from root *kel- "to strike, cut."