Yates
A surname from Middle English yate, meaning “gate,” originally for someone who lived or worked by a gate.
The #535 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 4,881 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Yates is usually explained as a plural or genitive form of Middle English yate, ‘gate,’ from Old English geat. In that sense, it began as a topographic or occupational name for someone living by a gate, or serving as a gatekeeper. Some older writers also noted dialect forms where yate could be treated as equivalent to gate, which helps explain related surnames like Yeates and Yeatman.
History
The surname is well established in England and appears in medieval records in forms tied to gates and gatehouses. Historical surname writers commonly grouped Yates with Gates, Yeates, and Yeatman as related forms. It later became especially common in northern England and then spread widely through Britain and to North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes remark that in some dialects the sounds of Y and G were easily interchanged, which is one reason Yates was linked so closely with Gates.
From the historical record
“-t- man, O.E. man{n\ YATES, pi., and genit., of Yate, q.v. I here and see bothe How a spirit speketh to helle And biddeth unspere [undo] iheyates- — Piers Plowman, 12598-600. YAXLEY (Eng.) Bel. to Yaxley (Hunts: loth, cent.' Gedces ledh; Suff.) = Geac's Lea [the pers.nanie is a nickname f. O.E. gedc,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)