COTTERILL
Cotterill is a surname of English origin. Its existence can be traced back to the Norman period, when the word cotter – a technical term of status for a tenant‑farmer or bond‑serf who held a cottage by labour service rather than by paying rent – was introduced into the feudal landscape of medieval England.
The suffix -ill is a diminutive, rendering the name literally as little cotter or smallholder. The name would have served to distinguish those who worked from a smallholding or lived in a cottage from the more affluent members of a community. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the term appears as coterellus, derived from the Old French coterel, itself a diminutive of cotier, meaning cottage.
During the Middle English period several spellings of the name became common, the most prevalent being cotterell, cotrell, cotterill, cottrill and cotherill. Parish registers in London provide some of the earliest records of the surname: in 1552 Edward cotterell was married to Em Hastings in Twickenham; in 1566 Dorothy cottrell wed Thomas Coman at St. Gregory’s; in 1604 the christening of Anne cottrill took place in Wadsworth; and in 1618 a child named Alice cotterill was christened in St. Andrew’s, Holborn.
The first documented spelling that has survived in a surviving record is that of William Coterel, dated 1130 in the London Pipe Rolls, created during the reign of King Henry I, known as “the Lion of Justice,” which spanned from 1100 to 1135. This early mention confirms that the surname was in use almost immediately after the Norman conquest.
Today, the surname Cotterill remains a distinctively English name, borne by families primarily within the United Kingdom, with a scattered presence in countries that experienced English migration. Its linguistic heritage reflects the agrarian social structures of medieval England and the manner in which occupational status was memorialised through family names.
Typical given names associated with the Cotterill surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Brenda
- Delys
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Emma-rose
- Julie
- Karen
- Louise
- Lynne
- Margaret
- Michelle
- Nicola
- Pamela
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
- Cotterell
- Cottrell
- Cottrill
- Catteril
- Catterill
- Coeterill
- Coteral
- Coterell
- Coterhill
- Coterill
- Cotherill
- Cotrall
- Cotrell
- Cotrill
- Cotteral
- Cotterall
- Cotterel
- Cotterhil
- Cotterhill
- Cotteril
- Cotterll
- Cotterrall
- Cotterrel
- Cotterrell
- Cotterrill
- Cottirell
- Cottirill
- Cottorell
- Cottral
- Cottrall
- Cottreill
- Cottrel
- Cottrele
- Cottriell
- Cottril
- Cutterall
- Cutterill
- Cattrall
- Cotter
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Cotterill in...
Braille
⠉⠕⠞⠞⠑⠗⠊⠇⠇
Morse
-.-.-----..-....-...-..
Semaphore
There are approximately 5,587 people named Cotterill in the UK. That makes it roughly the 1,693rd most common surname in Britain. Around 86 in a million people in Britain are named Cotterill.
Famous people named Cotterill
- David Cotterill - Welsh football player
- Steve Cotterill - Football player and manager
- Colin Cotterill - Writer
- Mary-Anne Cotterill - Swimmer, Olympic athlete, Commonwealth Games silver medallist
- Montagu Cotterill - Cricketer (1851 to 1933)
- George Cotterill - Football player (1868 to 1950)
- Arthur Cotterill - New Zealander cricketer and lawyer (1848 to 1902)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.