Bapt 'the son of Ottur' (v. Yonge). (a) Nick, 'the otter.' Middle English oter. The former is evidently the chief parent of the surname, as will be seen below. Oter was a great Scandinavian personal name (v. Lower).

Edward Oter, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Oter, Suffolk, ibid.

Walter Oter, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Otuer de Insula, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Otverus de Insula, ibid.

Johannes Otour, spicer, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1766. Married — Robert Otter and Sarah Henslow: St. George, Hanover Square.

From the common ON. personal name Ottarr. John Otir witnessed gift of land to the Hospital of Soltre, c. 1250-66 (Soltre, p. 32). Johannes Otyr, witness in Berwick, 1264 (Neubotle, p. 152), may be John Oter, merchant there, who had license to trade by land and sea for two years in 1291, and II 1296 rendered homage (Bain, II, p. 130,203). His seal shows two chevrons on a shield, a quarrel above, S' Johannis Otyr (ibid., p. 554). Gregor-Oder also rendered homage in 1296 (Macdonald, 2174). Simon Otyr, burgess of Crail, 1402 (Royal Hist. Soc. Trans., VI p. 330). Donald Otor was baron of Twlezettyll, 1548 (Athole, p. 714.)

A Scandinavian personal name of great antiquity, and common application. It is variously spelt Otter, Ohter, Other, Othyr, Ottyr. Oter, and in Domesday book. Otre. In some one or other of these forms it occurs also in the Saxon Chronicle, the Annales Cambriae, and the Dublin Annals. A lately-decyphered inscription on a cross in the isle of Man reads-"Otr raised this cross to Fruki, his father." As a family name, it has existed from time immemorial in the "Danish" or Northman counties of East Yorkshire. Nottingham, Lincoln and Derby, where there is almost a elan of Otters, though the name is rarely to be met with in other counties, and scarcely appears at all in the metropolis. Walter Fitz-Other, the celebrated castellan of Windsor, temp. William I., the reputed ancestor of the Fitzgeralds. Gerards. Windsors. and other great houses, was the son of Otherus. a great landowner under the Confessor, but whether the latter was of Norse descent does not appear: there is, however, something like armorial evidence of the connection of the Otters with the families alluded to. Ingram, in his translation of the Saxon Chronicle, says that Otter was "originally 'oht-here or ' ocht-here,' i.e. Terror of an Army."

Local. Oitir, Gaelic, a low promontory jutting into the sea, a shoal.

Same as the well-known Scandivanian name Ottar, which Ferguson renders fear-inspiring. The name is also found written Ohter, Other, Othyr, Ottyr, Oter, and, in Domesday, Otre. "Walter Fitz-Other (says Lower), the celebrated castellan of Windsor, temp. William I., the reputed ancestor of the Fitz-Geralds, Gerards, Windsors, and other great houses, was the son of Otherus, a great landowner under the Confessor. Ingram, in his translation of the Saxon Chronicle, says Otter was originally oht-here or ocht here, i. e. terror of an army."

(Cottier, Cotter pronounced Cotchier), contracted from MacOttarr, 'Ottar’s Son', The Scandinavian name, Ottarr, seems to be formed from Otta, 'twilight', and the ending hari, which probably means ‘sword'. In Anglo- Saxon spelling it is Ohthere. The voyages of a Norse­man so named are related in King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius, At Kirk Braddan there is an inscrip­tion on a cross read by Mr. Kermode as follows: Utr: Risti: Crus: þONO: Aft: Froka (‘Otter raised this cross to Froca’), Under a.d. 1098, we find in the Chronicon Manniæ, that 'A battle was fought between the Manxmen at Santwat, and those of the North obtained the victory. In this engagement were slain the Earl Other and Macmaras, leaders of the respective parties'.

'MacOttir, one of the people of Insi Gall (the Hebrides)', a.d. 1142.

Ottar was king of Dublin, a.d, 1147.

Ottarr is common in the Flateyjarbóc. Cotter is the usual form to the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was generally supplanted by Cottier, which is now almost invariably the form used. Tradition has it that two Huguenot families, called Cottier, escaped from France at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572, and that their descendants settled in Lezayre. The name Cottier, however, or rather MacCottier, was found here before that date, but it is possible that its origin may not be the same as that of Cotter.