Gatan History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Scotland

The ancestry of the name Gatan dates from the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It comes from when the family lived in the area of Cheshire that was referred to as the hill of Gaega, Gaega being an Anglo-Saxon personal name. Gatan is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree.

Another source notes the name could have been a local name having derived from the Viking "geit" + "tun," and literally meant "farmstead where the goats are kept." 1

Early Origins of the Gatan family

The surname Gatan was first found in Lincolnshire where three of the earliest records of the family were listed. The first was Robert de Geiton who was listed there in the Pipe Rolls of 1193 2, the second and third were Ralph de Gayton and Richard de Gayton, both listed there in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273. 3

Much further to the north in Scotland, Geoffrey de Gaytun was Burgess of Aberdeen in 1275 and Galfridus dictus de Gaytun, appears as a charter witness there in 1231, but this source notes that the name was "of English origin from one or other of several places of the name in England." 4 A migration to Scotland must be presumed.

We discovered a township in Cheshire, a parish in Norfolk; a parish in Northamptonshire; a parish in Staffordshire; and two parishes in Lincolnshire all named Gayton. The Norfolk, Staffordshire and Lincolnshire parishes are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Gaituna, Gaitone and Gettone respectively. 1 5

Early History of the Gatan family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Gatan research. Another 95 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1200, 1273, 1317, 1608, 1666, 1720, 1744, 1745, 1747, 1754, 1755 and 1787 are included under the topic Early Gatan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Gatan Spelling Variations

Spelling variations in names were a common occurrence before English spelling was standardized a few hundred years ago. In the Middle Ages, even the literate spelled their names differently as the English language incorporated elements of French, Latin, and other European languages. Many variations of the name Gatan have been found, including Gayton, Gaydon, Gaytun, Gaton and others.

Early Notables of the Gatan family

Notables of this surname at this time include: Edmund Gayton (1608-1666), English author, son of George Gayton of Little Britain, London; he was born there 30 Nov. 1608. 6Clark Gayton (1720?-1787?), was a British admiral who after serving as a midshipman in the Squirrel with Captain Peter Warren on the coast of North America, and subsequently as a lieutenant in the West Indies, was promoted by Commodore Knowles to command the Bien Aimé storeship on 12 Aug. 1744. In July 1745...
Another 81 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Gatan Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Gatan family

Families began migrating abroad in enormous numbers because of the political and religious discontent in England. Often faced with persecution and starvation in England, the possibilities of the New World attracted many English people. Although the ocean trips took many lives, those who did get to North America were instrumental in building the necessary groundwork for what would become for new powerful nations. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Gatan, or a variant listed above: Richard Gayton settled in Barbados in 1680 with his servants; Roger Gayton arrived in Maryland in 1774.

Contemporary Notables of the name Gatan (post 1700) +

Brigadier-General Gatan Charbonnier (1891-1955), French Commanding Officer during World War II 7

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Smith, George (ed), Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1885-1900. Print
Generals of World War II. (Retrieved 2011, October 3) Gatan Charbonnier. Retrieved from http://generals.dk/general/Charbonnier/Ga%C3%ABtan-Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-Serge/France.html