Coat meaning | Last name Coat origin

The surname is the variant of Cotes. A manor in Staffordshire gave name to this family, who are "descended from Richard de Cotes, probably the son of Thomas de Cotes, living in 1167, when the Black Book of the Exchequer was compiled. About the reign of Henry VI the family removed to Woodcote in Shropshire, which has since continued their principal seat, though the more ancient manor of Cotes or 'Kotes,' on the banks of the Sow, has ever remained the property of this ancient house."

Of the wood or forest.

Is a variant form of the Coates. Descendant of one who occupied a cottage and tilled ten acres or less.

Coat is form of the Coate. Descendant of one who occupied a cottage and tilled ten acres or less.

See Cott - A common termination of local surnames, as in Walcott, Caldecott, Norcot, Northcote, Southcote, etc. It appears to be the Anglo-Saxon cóte. Professor Leo observes that, "if selë be the dwelling of the wealthy of landowners, cóte on the other hand indicates the abode of the poorer classe. Cote is the house of an indigent de pendent countryman, who, without any personal estate, holds a transferable tenement in fief. It was originally a house of mud, or of earth, with loam walls." The prefixed word some times indicates the owner's name, and is sometimes descriptive of the situation.