Submitted Surname Revision History

Either from Middle English porte "gateway, entrance" (Old French porte, from Latin porta), hence a topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town or city, or for the gatekeeper. A topographic name for someone who lived near a harbor or in a market town, from a homonymous Middle English porte (Old English port "harbor, market town", from Latin portus "harbor, haven", reinforced in Middle English by Old French port, from the same source). Or a habitational name from Port‐en‐Bessin (Calvados), which is recorded as Portu in 1035–36. The placename derives from Latin portus "port, harbour, haven". German topographic name for someone who lived near a (city) gate, from Middle Low German porte (modern German pforte). French habitational name from a place named Port, e.g. in Meurthe-et-Moselle. English and German cognate and French variant of Laporte.