MORTER
Morter is a surname of English origin that was historically an occupational name derived from the Old English word mortere, meaning “a mortar.” In the Middle Ages a person who worked as a mortar maker, or who used a mortar in a trade such as masonry or apothecarian practice, would have been identified by this appellation, thus giving rise to the surname.
Although the name is primarily English, the same lexical root appears in Old French as mortier and in Anglo-French as morter. In French usage the term denoted plaster and the plasterer who applied it. The surname therefore also has a metonymic occupational origin in French, referring to someone who worked with the lime, sand and water mixture that created joints between stones or coated stone walls. The earliest church record bearing the name, that of Marye Mortyer, dates to 22 January 1609 in London during the reign of King James I, and the name appears in a 1645 marriage register in Stepney where Thomas Morter and Joane Wilson are recorded.
In England the surname has been documented from the 16th century, with a 1542 entry for the verbatim spelling Mortor in the parish registers of St. Budeaux, Devon. Variant spellings that have been found in historic documents include Mortar, Mortor, Mortur, Mortir, Mortery, Mortens, Mortaint, Mortice, Mortner, Mortare and others. Some of these variants, such as Mortens, appear to have been adopted from the French surname Montes and are recorded in Welsh muster rolls of 1522, whereas others such as Mortry and Mortey are linked to the ruined castle of Mortery in Rotherfield, Sussex.
In continental Europe the surname is also present, particularly in German-speaking countries. Derived from Middle High German it translates as “mud” and would have described a mason or tile maker who worked with mud, or possibly a person living near a marsh. The name is uncommon in England but does occur in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Russia. In the United Kingdom the distribution has historically been concentrated in the South and South-East, with a relatively small number of bearers in the United States.
According to the 2000 United States Census, there were just over three thousand people with the surname Morter. The majority of these individuals were concentrated in California (about 25 per cent), followed by Florida (17 per cent) and Pennsylvania (10 per cent). The name is believed to have arrived in America primarily via immigrants from German-speaking areas, with documented examples including the early–settlement of the Morter brothers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the early 1700s and later migration from Switzerland and Germany to Minnesota in the nineteenth century.
The surname Morter remains a distinctive and somewhat uncommon family name, recognised for its occupational heritage and for its numerous historical spellings that preserve the linguistic and regional variations of the English, French and German traditions from which it derives.
Typical given names associated with the Morter surname
Male
- Andrew
- Anthony
- Carl
- Christopher
- David
- Dean
- Gary
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Caroline
- Debra
- Denise
- Heidi
- Helen
- Jennifer
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Sarah
- Sharon
- Susan
- Tracy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Morter in...
Braille
⠍⠕⠗⠞⠑⠗
Morse
-----.-.-..-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 649 people named Morter in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around ten in a million people in Britain are named Morter.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Morter
- Jon Morter - Rock DJ
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.