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Carter (name)

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Carter (name)
Origin
Language(s)Latin, Gaelic
Meaning"transport goods by cart"
Region of originIreland, Scotland, England
Other names
Variant form(s)McCarter MacArthur McArthur McCarthy Carty
Frequency Comparisons:[1]

Carter is a family name, and also may be a given name. Carter is of Irish, Scottish and English origin and is an occupational name given to one who transports goods by cart or wagon ultimately of Celtic derivation. It may also appear as an English reduced form of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic derived McCarter or the Scottish-Gaelic Mac Artair with Mc meaning "son of." Its appearance and pronunciation as Carter may also be the Anglicized form of the Irish Mac Artúir, Cuirtéir, or Ó Cuirtéir.[2][3] The name is related to the Gaelic word cairt meaning cart, and ultimately from the Latin carettarius. Additionally, in Gaelic, the word "cairtear", which means tourist or sojourner, is also related. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1100s Roman Catholic English derived Carter's also arrived in Ireland and settled into walled towns established by the Normans. These Anglo-Normans assimilated into Irish culture, adopting Irish Gaelic customs, language, and religion unlike later English and Scottish Protestant planter settlers in Ireland who arrived between the 1550s and 1700 and mainly settled in Ulster during the plantation of Ulster, establishing the Ulster Protestant community.[4]

It is the 44th most common surname in the United States and 56th most common in England. In Ireland it is ranked between McGarry and Cannon where it is found with greatest frequency in County Laois as the 70th most common surname, and 274th in Scotland where it is found with greatest frequency in the Outer Hebrides as the 140th most common surname.[5]

People of European heritage bearing this surname may trace their ancestors back to Ireland, England or Scotland. Within the past 150 years, the Carter surname has been adopted widely by African Americans as taken from slavemasters by former slaves upon the Emancipation and 13th Amendment, through mixing with those masters (who were typically of English or Scottish descent), or through the common mixing found between Irish immigrants and free African Americans in Northern cities and communities such as Five Points and Seneca Village in New York City and elsewhere in the United States.[6] This name is common among African Americans capable of tracing their roots back to the southern United States or Caribbean from the early 20th century onward, with some 35% of name holders of Carter in the United States being of African-American descent and it being the 22nd most common surname for Black Americans.

People with the surname

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I

  • Ian Carter (born 1967), British-born Canadian soccer player

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  • Yannick Carter (born 1984), Canadian football linebacker
  • Yvonne Carter (1959–2009), British doctor and Dean of Warwick Medical School

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People with the given name

Carter
GenderMale
Origin
Word/nameGaelic
Meaning"transports goods by cart"
Region of originIreland, Scotland, England

People with the middle name

Fictional characters

Given name

Surname

See also

References

  1. ^ "Carter Surname Meaning and Distribution". forebears.co.uk. Retrieved 21 January 2014
  2. ^ "Mac Artúir - Irish Names and Surnames".
  3. ^ "MFnames.com – Origin and Meaning of Carter". Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
  4. ^ "The Evolution of Irish Surnames - and where your Surname fits in".
  5. ^ "Carter Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History".
  6. ^ "The Irish and African-American Connection".
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