PATMAN
Patman is an English surname that has its origins in the British Isles, specifically England. It is an occupational name that derives from the Old English personal name Patta combined with the word mann, meaning man. The construction of the name indicates a person who served or attended a prominent individual or a nobleman during the early medieval period.
The earliest recorded instance of the name appears in the Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire in 1219, during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. In that document the surname occurs as Pateman, a spelling variation that is still used in some families today. Over the centuries the name has been documented in a number of different forms, including Pattman, Patemon, Patemun and Pattemun.
Another source of explanation links the name to the medieval personal name Pate. This name itself has two main origins. It may be a nickname for Patrick, derived from the Latin Patricius and meaning “son of a noble father,” or it may be a nickname for a bald man, taken from the word pate meaning head or skull. In either case the suffix man then denoted the person who was a friend, manager or attendant of someone named Pate.
Because the surname was originally occupational it is possible that a person called Patman was literally a servant or keeper of a man named Patrick, or that the name was used to signify someone who worked for a proprietor of that name. The precise significance of the name has not been definitively documented, and contemporary scholarship accepts that the exact origin remains conjectural.
Today the surname Patman is most commonly found in the United States, especially in the Southern states. In the census of 2000 there were an estimated 2 386 households nationwide, with about 1 500 in Texas, 289 in California and 243 in Oklahoma. Historical records indicate that the family may have departed from England in the late eighteenth century, with some genealogists suggesting an ancestor of Irish or Scottish origin who later settled in America. Other researchers note that the name could have evolved through a number of different spellings during migration and settlement.
Over time the name has spread throughout the United States and has appeared in a variety of social contexts. Society pages in several newspapers have reported on weddings, anniversaries and other family events involving individuals with the surname Patman. There are also claims that members of the Patman family participated in the American Revolution, and that some have achieved prominence in business and politics, receiving coverage in regional and national media.
Below are the most commonly recognised variants of the surname, all tracing back to the same original formation: Patmann, Pattman, Pateman, Patemon, Patemun, Pattemun, Pattemon, Patemonne and Pattemonne. Less frequent forms include Petman, Potman, Bateman, Pelman and the compound names Patesman and Pattison. Related surnames of the same occupational type are Paterson, Patmore, Paddison, Paddons, Paddick, Padley, Patten and Pattinson.
In sum, the surname Patman exemplifies how occupational names derived from Old English personal names have persisted through the centuries. Its many spellings and wide geographic distribution demonstrate the fluidity of family names over time while retaining their original social function as identifiers of service and association within a feudal context.
Typical given names associated with the Patman surname
Male
- Anthony
- Brian
- David
- Geoffrey
- James
- John
- Mark
- Matthew
- Michael
- Paul
- Simon
- Terence
Female
- Alison
- Claire
- Delva
- Diane
- Elizabeth
- Janet
- Jean
- Jennifer
- Lauren
- Margaret
- Rachel
- Ruth
- Sonya
- Susan
- Zoe
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 Patman in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 463 people named Patman in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around seven in a million people in Britain are named Patman.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
