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Surname Etymology and Meaning of CATER

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English: occupational name for the buyer of provisions for a large household, from a reduced form of Anglo-Norman French acatour (Late Latin acceptator, an agent derivative of acceptare ‘to accept’). Modern English caterer results from the addition of a second agent suffix to the word.
2. Slovenian (Cater): status name for a person who read out the Slovenian ceremonial text at the installation of the Carantanian rulers and, later, Carinthian dukes, derived from the dialect verb catiti ‘to read’. Carantania was the early medieval Slovenian state on the territory of present-day Carinthia and Styria, now divided between Austria and Slovenia. The people’s installation of the Carantanian rulers was an exceptional example of democratic elections in medieval Europe. Thomas Jefferson knew about it and was influenced by it in his thinking about American Independence.
3. Perhaps also an Americanized spelling of German Köter (see Koetter).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)