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Updated June 9, 2019

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.

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