Gate Family History
Gate Surname Meaning
from northern Middle English gate gait ‘goat’ (Old English gāt Old Scandinavian geitr). Some of the following post-medieval bearers may alternatively belong with (2).
in the northern counties the E Midlands and perhaps E Anglia from Middle English gate ‘path road street’ (Old Scandinavian gata). Compare Street.
In N England when this name lacks a preposition it is indistinguishable from that in (1). from Middle English gate ‘gate’ (Old English geat dative plural gatum) sometimes occurring in the plural form for someone who lived by a gate possibly sometimes a gate keeper.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016