Name of the Week: Tate

 

Origin:

Tate is an English surname derived from the Old English name Tata which appears in several place names in Britain including Tatenhill "Tata's hill," Tatham "Tata's homestead," Tattenhall "Tata's nook of land" and Tatsfield "Tata's field."  It isn't clear what the name means. It may simply be the Old English tata "father," or it could be from the reconstructed *tāt "glad, cheerful, happy," derived from the Saxon tēt. The Old Norse cognate teitr "happy, glad, merry," was certainly used as a Scandinavian given name. The name Teitr appears for more than one characters in the epic Icelandic saga Landnamabok. "Tat" also appears as a prototheme in other Old English names such as Tatberht, Tatfrith, Tatnoth and Tatwine.  The name is now most famous for being the name of the British modern art gallery, the Tate Modern, which was named after its founder Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), a sugar merchant and philanthropist.

Usage:

Æthelburh of Kent (b. 605), queen of Northumbria was, according to Bede, known also as Tate, which was perhaps a byname given to her meaning "cheerful." The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) lists four men with the name Tata: a landowner in Berkshire (fl. 900-904), a minister (fl. 882), a bishop (fl. 879x908) and a priest (fl. 900-909).  The surname was used from at least the 11th century. An Uluric Tates is listed in the Feudal Documents of Bury St Edmund's c.1095 and Nicholas Tate is recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire in 1279. As with all surnames, Tate became used as a given name as an adoption of a family surname. As Tate is a relatively uncommon surname, examples are few in number.  The 1881 census puts Tate as the 769th most common surname in the UK and Tait at #480. Tate was particularly common in Yorkshire and surrounding counties, while Tait was more common in Scotland. As the distribution map (right) shows, there is a direct correlation between areas where the surname and the given name were used. The given name was not especially popular. From 1837 to 1975, Tate was registered 40 times as a first name in the England and Wales Birth Index.  In the last two decades however, Tate has been steadily rising. Firstly, it fits the fashion for adopting surnames as first names, and secondly, it's short, punchy vowel sounds fits other fashionable favourites such as Jake, Luke, Jude, Kyle and Reece.  In 1996, Tate ranked #728 (21 births) for boys and #2350 (6 births) for girls in England and Wales. For girls, the name has ranked much the same of the last two decades, peaking at #1269 (17 births) in 2003.  For boys, however, the name has been gradually (though at first intermittently) rising. It's largest rise has been since 2010. This may have been in part, thanks to former Spice Girl Emma Bunton naming her second son Tate Lee in May 2010.  In 2014, Tate ranked #305 (150 births) for boys and #4684 (4 births) for girls in England and Wales.  In Scotland, Tate ranked #399 (8 births) for boys and #1534 (1 birth) for girls.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Nahum Tate (1652–1715), English poet and dramatist.  * Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), a sugar merchant and philanthropist.  * Cullen Tate (1886-1947), American director. Contemporary: * Jeffrey Tate CBE (b. 1943), British conductor. Literature and Other Media: * Tate Langdon, principle character in American Horror Story portrayed by Evan Peters. Other: * Tate, a group of public art galleries in Britain.

Variants:

Tait, Taite

Pronunciation:

TAYT [key]

Possible diminutives:

N/A

Sibling Names:

Sienna      Lilia     Eden      Lyra      Arya     Erin       Wyatt     Zephyr    Flynn     Arlo     Lex     Vaughn

Name Lists:

Short and Sweet

 

If you like Tate you may also like:    Quinn, Archer, Kai, Beau, Nico, Jago, Blaise, Seth, Boyd, Grey

 

Thanks to Angelica for requesting this post.