indicate the level to which a name has been verified.Type Surname (from location)
Usage English
Meaning & History
Habitational name for a person from any of the places named Colgate or similar in England, from Old English col "coal, charcoal" and gæt "gate", indicating a gate leading into a woodland where charcoal was burned. A famous bearer of the name was English-American industrialist William Colgate (1783-1857), the founder of what is now the Colgate-Palmolive company.