Carter History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Carter

What does the name Carter mean?

The ancestry of the name Carter can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It is a name for a person who builds carts. Another alternative origin of this surname is guard which is derived from the Old English word Caretarius or Carda. 1 2

The Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae listed William Cartier, of Normandy, 1195 and Ralph Caretarius, of Winchester, 1148. 3

Early Origins of the Carter family

The surname Carter was first found in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 where Jocius Caretarius, Oxfordshire; Juliana le Cartere, Cambridgeshire; Nicholas le Carter, Oxfordshire; John le Cartere, Norfolk; Robert le Caretter, Huntingdonshire; and Margaret le Careter, Huntingdonshire were all listed, some still in their Latin form of the name. 4

The name is “well distributed over England. It is best represented in Cheshire and Essex, and afterwards in Cambridgeshire, Devon, and Sussex.” 5

By the 15th and 16th centuries, the family was also found in Scotland. “James Cartare witness in Edinburgh, 1439. Hob Carter was a tenant

Hundred derived from the Danish or Norse word wapentake which literally meant the taking up of weapons that were laid aside after an agreement was first used by the Saxons between 613 and 1017. One hundred held enough land to sustain approximately 100 households, or in other words land covered by one hundred “hides”.

https://www.houseofnames.com/blogs/DomesdayBook#terms on lands of the Abbey of Kelso, 1567.” 6