Explore the Family Name Cabot

The meaning of Cabot

French, Channel Islands (Jersey), and English (of Norman origin): nickname from Old French and Anglo-Norman French cabot, a diminutive of cap ‘head’, a word that was also used to denote a species of small fish. Alternatively, a habitational name from one of the many places so called in the northern part of France. History: John Cabot, born in Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1680, settled in Salem, MA, in 1700. Although not among the earliest American immigrants, the Cabots were, by the end of the 18th century, the preeminent family of New England. By 1800 they were extremely rich, largely on account of privateering during the American Revolution, smuggling, and trade in slaves and opium. In the 19th century, they branched out into oil and gas production, railroads, and chemicals. The Cabots sustained their wealth and social position well into the 20th century, largely by carefully arranging their marriages and sending most of their sons to Harvard. — The spice merchant and explorer John Cabot (about 1450–98), who was based for a time in Bristol, England, was a citizen of Venice. He and his father (a merchant of Genoa) may have been of Norman or French stock, trading in the Italian ports of the Mediterranean.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.