18,736 Global COTTRELL Family Members

COTTRELL Family History

This interesting name is a diminutive of Cotter, itself a medieval status surname introduced by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066. It derives from the Middle English "cotter", which was a technical term of status in the feudal system for a serf or bond tenant who held his cottage by labour service rather than by paying rent. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the term is used (to denote status) as "coterellus", the Old French being "coterel", a diminutive of "cotier", cottages. In the modern idiom the surname can be found recorded as Cotterell, Cotrell, Cotterill, Cottrill and Cotherill.