Mote
Usually a habitational surname meaning someone who lived by a moat, mound, or earthwork.
The #7,697 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 71,585 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally traced to a topographic word for a moat, mound, embankment, or defensive earthwork. In medieval English and Anglo-French usage, forms like mote and motte referred to a raised mound or ditch, so the name likely began as a description of where someone lived. The same root also appears in French place-name forms such as de la Motte.
History
The name appears in English surname collections as a local or topographic byname, and some bearers may also descend from forms influenced by French de la Motte. In some cases, writers noted that Mote could also be a shortened or altered form of other surnames such as Mott. Because spellings were fluid in medieval records, the same family line may appear as Mote, Motte, or Mott.
Origin
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Fun fact
The word behind the surname is the same one found in medieval references to castle earthworks and moated sites.
From the historical record
“and Hope] MOTE 1 (A.-Fr.-Teut.) i Dweller at a Moat MOTT I [ (Dial. E. mot), M.E. O.Fr. mote (Ft. matte), a mound (with or without a super- structure), dike, or foss ; of Teut. orig.] The mote is of mercy The manoir aboute. — Piers Plowman, 3678-9. De la Motte is a common French sur- name.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)