Recorded as Tate and Tait, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname. It is however probably of Norse-Viking origin, deriving from the pre 7th century Old Norse word "teitr", meaning glad or cheerful. In its home country it is recorded as the personal name "Teitr", and appears in the Icelandic saga called "Landnamabok". As Tait the name was first recorded in Scotland in 1329 when a debt due by the king was paid to Thomas Tayt, although. Nicholas Tate is recorded even earlier in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire, England, in the Hundred Rolls of landowners, in the year 1279.
It would seem that according to ancient surviving rolls of Scotland that between the years 1362 and 1370 there are a number of entries of payment of pension to one John Tayt, a clerk who was connected with the hospital of Montrose. In England the Anglo-Saxon personal name "Tata" is contained in a number of placenames, among them Tatenhill, Tatsfield, and Tattershill, the latter being recorded as Tateshall in the Domesday Book of 1086. The modern surname is found most frequently in the northern counties of Yorkshire and Northumberland, although Sir Robert Tate and his brother Sir John Tate were both Lord Mayor of the city of London in 1488 and 1496 respectively, and were granted a "Arms". Another interesting namebearer was Sir Henry Tate (1819 - 1899), of the famous sugar firm Tate & Lyle. He was granted a patent in 1872 for an invention for cutting up sugar-loaves. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Uluric Tates. This was dated 1095, in the Feudal Documents of the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, during the reign of King William 11nd of England, 1087 - 1100. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
The origin, the coat of arms or the different heraldic shields, and the bibliography in which the surname tate is mentioned are part of this exciting investigation. Adhering to what we know about the way surnames originated, it is possible to offer a realistic explanation of the origins of tate.
The list of countries with a higher presence of people with the surname tate provides us with a perspective on the history of the surname, beyond its origins, focusing on its migrations.
For those like you, who are interested in the history hidden behind the surname tate, it is essential to find all kinds of information, both direct and tangential, that helps to construct a solid narrative of how the birth and expansion of tate developed. In the following lines, you will find everything we have been able to gather about the surname tate.
We keep our website updated through our own research and also thanks to contributions from people like you, after verification; so if you have information about tate and send it to us, we will update it on this website.
Sadly, not all the contributions of those who bore the surname tate were recorded by the chroniclers of the time. If you or someone you know bears the surname tate, you could potentially build illustrious lineages through your efforts and virtues. It is our desire to highlight in this section those individuals with the surname tate who, for various reasons, have left their mark on the course of history.
The origin, history, coat of arms or different coats of arms, and the heraldry of tate are recorded in a wide variety of sources and documents that are essential to know for better compilation. Accessing the archives of the town or towns where your ancestors were born and lived is, of course, a good way to trace the origins of tate.
These sources are essential for initiating the understanding of tate, and at the same time, of surnames in general.