Cotter family

Cotter

Ethnicity	Irish
Current region	Throughout Ireland and the Irish diaspora, still numerous in County Cork.
Earlier spellings	Mac Cotter, Mac Coitir, Mac Oitir.
Place of origin	Cork city Ireland, of Norse-Gael ancestry.
Connected families	The Cottier family of the Isle of Man are reputed to be distantly connected. The Coppinger and Skiddy families of Cork are also claimed to have Norse-Gael origins.
Distinctions	Baronets of Rockforest.
Traditions	Claim descent from Óttar of Dublin a 12th century Norse-Gael king.
Estate	Coppingerstown Castle, Inismore, Anngrove (historical).
Name origin and meaning	Son of Óttar.

The Norse-Gaelic Cotter family (Irish Mac Coitir or Mac Oitir) of Ireland, was associated with County Cork and ancient Cork city. The family was also associated with the Isle of Man and the Hebrides.

Evidence suggests an ultimately Norwegian origin of the name.

The Cotters are noted as one of the very few Irish families of verifiable Norse descent to survive the Norman invasion of Ireland, although it is currently unknown if this is genetically paternal or only maternal. This question mattered considerably less to the Norse of the period than to the Gaelic Irish, whose entire rigid class structure was and remains based on agnatic descent.

A family manuscript of later date claims the Cotters are descendants of Óttar of Dublin (Son of Mac Ottir), who was King of Dublin from 1142 to 1148, through his son Thorfin and grandson Therulfe. This is not impossible, nor even improbable, but currently remains unverified, the greater part of the history of the Norse in Ireland, and especially those in Munster, being lost. The Gaelic Mac Coitir was originally Mac Oitir, meaning "Descendant of Óttar".

Óttar of Dublin belonged to what has been referred to as the Ottar dynasty, a family of powerful jarls and sometimes kings of the Irish Sea region and surrounding waters, characterised by the repeated use of the personal name Óttar.

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