Oats

This interesting name is of early medieval English origin, from the Middle English given name "Ode". The personal name itself has a complicated derivation, since it is in effect a result of the coalescence of various given names of different origins. These are the Olde English pre 7th Century and the Old Norse "Oda, Odda", and the Old German "Odo, Otto". The Olde English and Old Norse names derive from short forms of various compound names with the first element, either the Olde English "ord" or Old Norse "odd", both meaning "point of a weapon". The Old German form is also from the first element of a compound name; "od", prosperity, riches. All of these names were Latinized as "Odo", and as such the personal name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and also as "Ode" and "Otto". The modern surname Oades, Oats, Oates and Otis are patronymic forms of the surname from this source. The marriage of Humphrey Oades and Elizabeth Blaunch was recorded at Sheffield, Yorkshire, on November 23rd 1595. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Ode, which was dated 1213, in the "Suffolk Curia Rolls", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.