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(Mac)Cotter

MacCotter is one of the quite numerous class of surnames with the initial C which should properly begin with a vowel, the C being transferred by attraction from the prefix Mac. In Irish this is Mac Oitir which in the same way is found also as Mac Coitir. The latter is unquestionably a corruption; the surname is formed from the popular Norse personal name Oitir. It does not follow that the Cotters (who in modern times do not use the prefix Mac) are of Norse descent since several families of undisputed Gaelic Irish origin have surnames derived from Norse personal names as, for example, McAuliffe, McManus, McRandall. Probably the first mention of it in Irish records is in the Four Masters under date 1142 when the son of Mac Oitir assumed "the chieftainship and government of Dublin". The Mac Oitir referred to was one of the Gaels of the Hebrides. Whether there is any connexion between him and Mac Oitir (Cotter) family, which was well established in Co. Cork at least as early as 1300, is still an open question. The sixteenth century Fiants have many references to MacCotters, all these being in Co. Cork. By the seventeenth century they had become Cotter. William and Thomas Cotter were Gaelic poets of that century whose songs have survived till our own day. Sir James Cotter was in command of King James II's troops in Co. Clare. His son. James Cotter (1689-1720), ended his life somewhat unjustly on the gallows. His son, another Sir James Cotter (1714-1770), having forsaken the religion and politics of his forebears, was created a baronet and among his posterity were a number of Protestant clergymen in Co. Cork, including Rev. George Sackville Cotter (1754-1831), who was translator of classical works of some merit. The name is still almost peculiar to Co. Cork. There are no less than eight place names in that county which incorporate the surname, e.g. Ballymacotters and ScartMcCotters near Cloyne.