Coots
An English surname that may be connected to the bird-name coot, though some bearers may also reflect variants of Coot/Coote or regional spelling drift.
The #8,994 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,914 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is probably connected to the English word coot, the waterbird, and may originally have been a nickname or an inherited surname from that source. However, 19th- and early-20th-century writers also treated Coots as a spelling variant alongside Coote and Coot, so the exact pathway is not always clear. In some cases, similar-looking forms may have been influenced by local pronunciation or by unrelated surnames with the same sound.
History
Older surname collections record Coot and Coots together, and the name appears in American records as a relatively uncommon surname. Some antiquarian notes also connect related forms to armorial or regional family traditions, especially in English and Cornish contexts. Because the historical evidence is mixed and sometimes speculative, the surname is best treated as having an uncertain origin with possible bird-name or variant-form roots.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 1913 note pointed out that the Coode family’s coat of arms included coots, but also warned that the family name itself was not actually derived from the bird.
From the historical record
“(an unknown species). Mallard, Brownbill, Par- tridge, Parrott, Parrotts, Duck, Drake, Corlew, Curlew, Bunting, Coote, Coots, Pidgeon, Pigeon, Pidgin, Dove, Wren, and Titt ; also Peep, Teal, Teel, Teele, Geyer (the German for " vulture "), Hauk, Hawks, Hawkes, Sparhawk, Kyte,* Sparrow, Howlett, Buzzard, Pecker…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)