Cote
A surname most often tied to a place-name meaning a cottage or small dwelling.
The #1,681 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,396 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is usually treated as a shortened or variant form of English place-names containing Old English cot, cote, meaning a cottage, hut, or small dwelling. In surname use, it often points to someone who came from a place called Cote or one of the many English local names ending in -cote. Lower explicitly connects Cote with Cott and notes the Old English form behind these local surnames.
History
The surname appears in English records as a locational name and is part of a wider family of names such as Caldecott, Walcott, Norcott, and Southcote. Historical writers also noted many small settlements with similar names in England, sometimes near Roman roads. In some cases, the spelling Cote may simply be a shortened form of longer local surnames rather than a separate origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old English cot also survives in several English place-names, so the surname Cote belongs to a very old and widespread naming pattern.
From the historical record
“aud Norfolk. COTE. See Cott. COTGRAVE. A parish in co. Notting- ham. De Cotegrave occurs in that county in H.R. There was also a Cheshire family of this name. Thomas, one of the grand- sons of the gi-eat William Belward, Lord of Malpas, held the lands of Cotgrave, and fi-om them assumed the surname De Cot- grave.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom