Goate Family History

From Middle English gote occasionally got(te) ‘watercourse channel stream’ (Old English *gota) denoting someone who lived by a watercourse or someone from a place so named such as East Goit (ER Yorks) Goat Farm in Ringmer (Sussex) where Thomas de Gote was assessed for tax in 1332 or Goat Farm in Streat (Sussex) where William atte Gote was assessed in 1327 (both in Sussex Subsidy Rolls).

This element is widely found in minor place-names in N England where it survives as dialect gote goit. Some of the early bearers may belong under (2).

From Middle English got(e) ‘goat’ (Old English gāt). The name may have denoted someone who looked after goats (compare Gathard) or someone who resembled a goat in some way; the animal was associated with lascivious behaviour.