Gates
Usually a topographic surname for someone who lived by a gate or town gate.
The #648 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,873 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Gates is generally understood as a plural or variant form of Gate, referring to a gate, opening, or town entrance. In medieval English surnames, it often identified someone who lived by the gate or at a gatehouse, so the name was originally topographic rather than occupational. The word goes back to Old English geat, meaning a gate or opening.
History
The surname appears in medieval records in forms such as atte Gate and de Gayte, showing the common preposition-based style of early English surnames. Later spellings varied, and plural-looking forms like Gates became fixed as hereditary surnames. It is now especially common in England and the United States, and has also spread widely through English-speaking migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley and Lower both treated Gates as essentially the same surname family as Gate, with the extra -s reflecting a later spelling and surname-shape variant.
From the historical record
“EK. GATES. See Gate. GATH. A corruption of Garth. GATHERCOLB. GATIIERCOAL. A gatherer or collector of coals ? or of coles (cabbage) 1 GATHERGOOD. As the opposite name Scattergood exists, I suppose this must be taken literally for a person of acquisitive”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom