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 on lands of the Abbey of Kelso, 1567.” 6