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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Northern English and Scottish : occupational name for a messenger, from an agent derivative of Middle English trot(en) ‘to walk fast’ (Old French troter, of Germanic origin, akin to 2 below).
  • German : occupational name for a grape-treader, from a derivative of Middle High German trot(t)e ‘winepress’. The word and the surname are confined largely to Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland, and Swabia.

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