As his mother is given as Maria Poulter on his christening and no father is mentioned, I wonder if he was illegitimate? If so, Hurdle could have been his father's name. If you look on FamilySearch, Hurdle was quite a common name in Farnham.
Or maybe Maria married a Hurdle, thus young Thomas used that name sometimes for ease, but in later life reverted to his birth name of Poulter/Paulter.