Carter (name)

Carter is a family name, and also may be a given name. Carter is of Irish, Scottish and English origin and is an occupational name given to one who transports goods by cart or wagon ultimately of Irish and Celtic derivation and an Irish reduced form of the name McCarter or the Scottish-Gaelic Mac Artair with Mc meaning son of and its appearance and pronunciation as Carter being the Anglicized form of the Irish Mac Artúir.[2][3] The name is related to the Gaelic word cairt meaning cart, and ultimately from the Latin carettarius. Additionally, in Gaelic, the word "cairtear", which means tourist or sojourner, is also related. It is the 44th most common surname in the United States, 56th most common in England, 428th most common in Ireland where it is found with greatest frequency in County Laois as the 70th most common surname, and 274th in Scotland.[1]

People of European heritage bearing this surname may trace their ancestors back to Ireland, England or Scotland. Within the past 150 years, the Carter surname has been adopted widely by African Americans taken from slavemasters by former slaves upon the Emancipation and 13th Amendment or through the common mixing found between Irish immigrants and free African Americans. This name is common among African Americans capable of tracing their roots back to the southern United States or Caribbean from the early 20th century onward, with some 35% of name holders of Carter in the United States being of African-American descent and it being the 22nd most common surname for Black Americans.