Family name origins & meanings
- English : probably from an Old English personal name of uncertain origin; perhaps a cognate of Bothe or akin to Butt. However, forms such as Walter le Botte (Oxfordshire 1279) seem to point to a nickname or occupational name, perhaps from Old French bot ‘butt’, ‘cask’, or bot ‘toad’. Compare Bottrell.
- South German : occupational name for a messenger, from Middle High German bote ‘messenger’, ‘emissary’.
- Danish : according to Søndergaard, from Dutch bot, both ‘flounder’ (the fish).