Blair Collection > Surnames & place-names of the Isle of Man

Cottier and Cotter (pronounced Cotchier), con-
tracted from MacOttarr, ' Ottar's son.' The Norse
name, Ottarr, seems to be formed from Otta,
* twilight,' and the ending havi, which prob-
ably 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 a
cross read by Dr. Vigfusson as follows : — Utr :
RiSTi : Crus : pONO : Aft : Froca .... ' Odd
raised this cross to the memory of Froca . . . .'
and he remarks ' Ut probably represents the Ice-
landic Odd, though this is not certain.'* Under
A.D. 1098, we find in the Chronicon Mannice, 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. 't
' MacOttir, one of the people of Insi Gall (the Hebrides),'
A.D. 1 142. J
Ottar was king of Dublin, a.d. 1147.
Ottarr is common in the FlateyjarbSc.
Cotter is the usual form to the middle of the
eighteenth century, when it was generally sup-
planted by Cottier, which is now almost invari-
ably the form used. Tradition has it that two
Huguenot families, called Cottier, escaped from
France at the time of the massacre of St. Bartho-
lomew, 1572, and that their descendants settled in
* Manx Note Book, No. 9, p. 16.
t Chronicon Manniae, Manx Society, Vol. XXII., p. 58.
t Four Mast., Vol. II., p. 169.
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