Family name origins & meanings
- English : like Bate, a derivative of the Middle English personal name Batte, a pet form of Bartholomew.
- English : possibly from a Middle English survival of an Old English personal name or byname Bata, of uncertain origin and meaning, but perhaps akin to batt ‘cudgel’ and so, as a byname, given to a thickset man or a belligerent one.
- English : topographic name, of uncertain meaning. That it is a topographic name seems clear from examples such as Walter atte Batte (Somerset 1327), but the meaning of the term is in doubt although it is found in medieval field names.
- German : from a medieval personal name (Latin Beatus ‘Blessed’), bestowed in honor of the apostle who was reputed to have brought Christianity to Switzerland and southern Germany.