Frequency: (315)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: from Anglo-Norman French boterie ‘buttery’ (Late Latin botaria, a derivative of bota ‘cask’), hence a metonymic occupational name for the keeper of a buttery. The term originally denoted a store for liquor but soon came to mean a store for provisions in general.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
