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| Origins Available: |
| | England |
The ancient name of Better finds its origins with the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It comes from a name for a coppersmith or a dealer in baterie. The surname Better is possibly derived from the Old French word bateor, meaning one who beats, a term which has been applied to a beater of cloth or fuller. The surname may also be a short form of the word orbatour, which means a beater of gold.
The surname Better was first found in Berkshire, where they held a family seat from ancient times.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Better research. Another 150 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1166, 1200, 1273, 1349, 1369, 1635, 1710 and 1777 are included under the topic Early Better History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Better family name include Beater, Beeter, Beatere, Betere, Batere, Bettere and many more.
More information is included under the topic Early Better Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Better surname or a spelling variation of the name include :