Copcote

Recorded in several spellings including Copcot, Copcott, Copcoate, Copcoate, and Copcutt, this is an English surname. It is residential from living either at a cottage on a hill, as in the Olde English pre 7th century words 'copp' meaning summit, and 'cott', a cottage with four acres capable of providing sustenance to a family of four, or possibly from some now 'lost' medieval village of the same or similar spelling. 'Lost' villages are a feature of the British Isles. It is estimated that at least three thousand surnames originate from such places, of which usually in the late 20th century, the only public reminder, is the surname itself. We have no idea where 'Copcott' was situated, but the surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London, show examples dating back to at least Elizabethan times. The first is probably that of John Copcote, who was christened at St Mary Woolchurch in the city of London, on December 22nd 1566, and slightly later, that of William Copcutt, the son of Benjamin Copcutt, who was christed at St Brides, Fleet Street, on May 4th 1612.