This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Bateman.' Not found in Yonge's Christian Names. An old personal name. The suffix -man may be -mond or -mund; compare Wyman, Osmat, Roseaman.

Bateman de Capele, Suffolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Bateman Taye, Kent, ibid.

Bateman de Apletrewyk, Yorkshire, ibid.

Cecilia Bateman, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Bateman fil. Cressaunt, Close Roll, 51 Henry III.

Willelmus Batemanson, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

William Batmanson, 1423: History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham.

1577. Married — Raffe Battman and Audnan Beane: St. Dionis Backchurch.

1611-2. George Bateman and Mary Goodcole: Marriage Lic. (London).

1685. Married — John Bateman and Harmon Kynvin: St. Mary Aldermary.

This well known English name is on record in Ireland since 1292 when one William Bateman was fined for contempt, and since 1396 when John Bateman, born in Ireland, was appointed to a judicial position, the name occurs quite frequently in mediaeval Irish records such as the Ormond Deeds. It does not, of course, follow that all Irish Batemans of the present day are descended from these early immigrants. There was, for example, a John Bateman of Oxenham, England among the Cromwellian “adventurers”, and one Rowland Bateman, a recent grantee, appears in the “census” of 1659 in the neighbourhood of Tralee, Co. Kerry, as a titulado, in company with Trants, Dennys and Springs. Prior to that the name in Ireland occurs chiefly as holders of government office or as that of a settler in Co.

Louth (Philip Bateman, 1422); but from the middle of the seventeenth century it became closely associated with south-west Munster — west Cork and Kerry, as the many wills recorded for Bateman testators show. The principal family there springs from Major Rowland Bateman, mentioned above, whose great-grandson, another Rowland, was Deputy-Governor of Kerry in 1779. Apart from this concentration in Munster, the name is not unknown in Ulster. It is of interest to note that contrary to the general tendency the total number of Batemans in the country has increased rather than decreased in the past century: the average number of Bateman births registered annually in the first years of compulsory registration (1864-66) was 12 * whereas in 1890 it was 19, in both cases mainly in Co. Cork—there are no statistics available for a later date. An annual birthrate of 19 represents a population of approximately 750 persons.

1 = Bate (q.v.) + man.

2 Boatman. [Middle English bate, &c., Old English bát, a boat + man] Some former Irish MacParlanes=Scot. MacFarlanes (Partholón = Bartholomew) have anglicized their name into Bateman.

This English name has been fairly numerous in Co. Cork since the seventeenth century. It appears in Irish records as early as 1292. SIF 14

(English) The servant of Bate, a pet form of Bartholomew (son of Talmai, furrow); the man who baited bears kept for amusement.

Anglo-Saxon bat, a boat. A boatman. A less likely derivation is from the Old English, bate, strife-one who contends, which is rather supported by the analogous surname Bater. It is probable that the Derbyshire family came from Norfolk (Lysons) and so they may have been descendants of the old Norse vikingr. Like many other names terminating in man, this appears to have been originally abaptismal appellation. A Bateman de Apletrewyk occurs in the H.R. in co. York.

May have two significations, Baitman, a keeper of a house of entertainment, and Bateman, a contentious man, from bate, Saxon, strife, to beat, contention.

From Baudemont in the Norman Vexin. Goel de Baudemont held a fief, 1165 (Feod. Norm. Duchesne). Andrew de Baldemont occurs in London, Devon, &c. 1130 (Rot. Pip.). Roger de Battemound held part of the Barony of Hephal, Northumberland, 13th cent. (Testa de Neville).

From the Swedish, Betjeman; from the Dutch, Betman; a personal name.