Trotter Family History

English (northern; also found in southern Scotland): perhaps from an unrecorded sense of Middle English trotter ‘one who rides a trotting horse’ a derivative of Middle English trotten ‘to ride at a trot at a fast pace’. It may have been given to a messenger (see Trotman).

Alternatively perhaps from a shortened form of an unrecorded Middle English trotterer ‘dealer in trotting horses’ a derivative of Middle English trotter (Old French trotier) ‘horse that trots’.

German: occupational name for a vintner from a derivative of Middle High German trot(t)e ‘winepress’ (a loan translation from Latin calcatura).

The word and the surname are confined largely to Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland, and Swabia.