Mott
A surname usually from a place-name for someone who lived by a moat or mound.
The #2,117 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,064 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Mott is generally explained as a topographic surname from the word for a moat, mound, dike, or embankment. The form goes back through Middle English and Old French mote/motte to an older Germanic root meaning a raised earthwork or defensive bank. In English records it could also be influenced by place-names such as La Motte in France or similar localities named for a mound.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in several spellings, including Mote, Motte, and Mott. Nineteenth-century surname writers often grouped it with French names like De la Motte, which were naturalized in England after the Norman period. It survives today in England and the United States in a modest number of bearers.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname dictionaries gloss Mott very literally as someone who lived 'at the moat.'
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)