Cabot History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
France

Etymology of Cabot

What does the name Cabot mean?

The name Cabot comes from the ancient Norman culture that was established in Britain after the Conquest of 1066. It was a name for a person with a large head. The surname Cabot was originally derived from the Old French word cabot and was rendered in medieval documents in the Latin form Capoceus.

Early Origins of the Cabot family

The surname Cabot was first found in Jersey in the Channel Islands where "it is of frequent occurrence. It appears to be derived from the little fish known by us as the 'bullhead,' but on the shores of Normandy and the Channel Islands, where it abounds, as the chabot or cabot." 1 The same reference continues on: "Sebastian Cabot, the discoverer of Newfoundland (born at Bristol in 1477) is generally believed to be of Venetian extraction, but there is much reason to believe that his father was a native of Jersey." 1

Another source sheds more light on his heritage: "He was the second son of John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, who afterwards settled in Bristol as a merchant, probably as early as 1472. A confusion between himself and his father on the part of many of his recent biographers has been the main cause of their perplexity. " 2

Early History of the Cabot family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cabot research. Another 127 words (9 lines of text) covering the years 1455, 1483, 1497, 1498 and 1557 are included under the topic Early Cabot History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cabot Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Cabot, Cabott, Chabot and others.

Early Notables of the Cabot family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was

John Cabot

Cabot Ranking

In the United States, the name Cabot is the 17,848^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 3 However, in France, the name Cabot is ranked the 1,993^rd most popular surname with an estimated 3,128 people with that name. 4

Cabot migration to the United States +

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Cabot or a variant listed above were:

Cabot Settlers in United States in the 15th Century

Sebastien Cabot who settled in Maine in 1498

Cabot Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

George Cabot, who landed in New England in 1700 5
John Cabot, who arrived in New England in 1700 5
Antoine Cabot, who arrived in Louisiana in 1756

Cabot Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Pedro Cabot, who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1816 5
Stephen Cabot, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1821
Jose Cabot, who landed in Puerto Rico in 1879 5

Contemporary Notables of the name Cabot (post 1700) +

Joe Cabot (1921-2016), stage name of Joseph Claude Caputo, an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and musical director
Samuel Cabot (1752-1853), American merchant, seaman, and politician from Boston, Massachusetts
Meggin Patricia Cabot (b. 1967), American author of romantic comedies
Paul Codman Cabot (1898-1994), American investment manager, and treasurer of Harvard University
Edward Clarke Cabot (1818-1901), American architect and watercolor painter
John Moors Cabot (1901-1981), U.S. Diplomat, Ambassador to Pakistan, and to Sweden
Richard Clarke Cabot (1868-1939), American physician, who pioneered clinical hematology
Godfrey Lowell Cabot (1861-1962), American industrialist and philanthropist
Lawrence A. Cabot, American Democratic Party politician, Member of New York State Assembly from Westchester County 2nd District, 1965; Defeated, 1966 6
John Moors Cabot (1901-1981), American politician, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, 1954-57; Colombia, 1957; Brazil, 1959-61; Poland, 1962-65 6
... (Another 7 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Smith, George (ed), Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1885-1900. Print
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 11) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html