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The cotter Surname

cotter Name Meaning and History

  1. Irish (co. Cork): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Oitir ‘son of Oitir’, a personal name borrowed from Old Norse Óttarr, composed of the elements ótti ‘fear’, ‘dread’ + herr ‘army’.
  2. English: status name from Middle English cotter, a technical term in the feudal system for a serf or bond tenant who held a cottage by service rather than rent, from Old English cot ‘cottage’, ‘hut’ (see Coates) + -er agent suffix.
  3. Probably an Americanized spelling of German Kotter.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The cotter name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the cotter family name as far back in history as possible.

cotter Family Facts

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Distribution of cotter Families in the US in 1920
Number of cotter families
 190-378
 64-189		 1-63
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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