Cotter Family Crest, Coat of Arms & Cotter Name Origin

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Origin of the Name Cotter

The Cotter family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. include McCotter and Cottar. This name is deriv,ed from the Gaelic MacCoitir, originally MacOitir, set that was located in County Cork in the southern part of Ireland . Ballymacotter, meaning 'Cotters town' still marks their original location. The earliest record this Irish name occurs in the ancient documents 'The Annals of the Four Masters' in the year 1142, when the son of MacOitir assumed the Chieftainship and Government of Dublin. The MacOitir referred to was one of the Gaels of the Hebridies. The Cotter families were well established by the year 1300 and in the sixteenth century Fiants there are several references to MacCotters, all of these being from Cork. When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. The Gaelic names MacOitir and MacCoitir became anglicized to Cotter in the seventeenth century. Notable bearers of the name include William and Thomas Cotter who were Gaelic Poets of that century, and whose songs still survive. Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter (1630–1705), was a Colonial Governor and the Commander-in-Chief of King James's forces in the Williamite War.