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The gates Surname

gates Name Meaning and History

  1. English: topographic name for someone who lived by the gates of a medieval walled town. The Middle English singular gate is from the Old English plural, gatu, of geat ‘gate’ (see Yates). Since medieval gates were normally arranged in pairs, fastened in the center, the Old English plural came to function as a singular, and a new Middle English plural ending in -s was formed. In some cases the name may refer specifically to the Sussex place Eastergate (i.e. ‘eastern gate’), known also as Gates in the 13th and 14th centuries, when surnames were being acquired.
  2. Americanized spelling of German Götz (see Goetz).
  3. Translated form of French Barrière (see Barriere).

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

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

gates Family Facts

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Distribution of gates Families in the US in 1920
Number of gates families
 385-767
 129-384		 1-128
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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