Mowat

Racial Origin – Scottish
Source – A place name

Here is a family name to puzzle you. From the sound of it you might think it of East Indian origin.  As it stands there is nothing to indicate its origin.

Fortunately there are records to prove its origin, though even then it is a little more difficult to grasp the manner in which the change has come over the name from it’s original form.

The family name of Mowat is a Scottish evolution of a Norman French place name. It is borne by a certain branch of Clan Sutherland.

The original Norman form of the name was “de monte Alto,” and in some of the old records it is found as “de Montealto.” There is a record of the grant of lands in Losscraggy and Culpedauchis by King Robert Bruce to one “Patricius de Monte-alto.”

According to history and tradition, the Norman family was one of the first to leave the domain of William the Conqueror and attach itself to the court of the Scottish monarchs, and upon receiving the grant of lands in the territory dominated by the Clan Sutherland, the family attached itself to that clan.  Through the centuries which have followed the “Montealto” has been boiled down by Gaelic speaking tongues to Mowat.