Mortimer is an English

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

Norman origins

The surname Mortimer has a Norman origin, deriving from the village of Mortemer,

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inf� ...

, Normandy. A Norman castle existed at Mortemer from an early point; one 11th century figure associated with the castle was Roger, lord of Mortemer, who fought in the Battle of Mortemer in 1054. The 12th century abbey of Mortemer at Lisors near Lyons-la-Forêt is assumed to share the same etymological origin, and was granted to the Cistercian order by Henry II in the 1180s. According to the toponymists Albert Dauzat and later, François de Beaurepaire, there are two possible explanations for such a place name:

First, a small pond must have already existed before the land was given to the monks and have already been called ''Mortemer'' like the two other ''Mortemers'', because the word ''mer'' "pond" was not used anymore beyond the Xth century. This word is only attested in North-Western France and of Frankish or
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
origin ''mari/meri'' " mere", "lake"; ''mort(e)'' "dead" is also quite common to mean "stagnant" (in Port-Mort "the port with stagnant water", Morteau "dead water", etc.).François de Beaurepaire, ''Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de la Seine-Maritime'', éditions Picard, 1979, p. 113 . Second, the monks could have given the name ''Mortemer'' to their drainage lake to remember the other Mortemer for any kind of reason we don't know, making a pun at the same time with ''Mer Morte'' "
Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...
".

Medieval magnates

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, the Mortimers became a powerful dynasty of

Marcher Lord A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in Fra ...

s in the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches () is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ''Marchia W ...

, first as barons of Wigmore Castle,

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

and later as Earl of March from 1328 to 1425. Through marriage, the Mortimers came close to the English throne during the reign of Richard II, though their royal claim was ignored after Richard II's deposition by his cousin Henry of Bolingbroke in 1399. The Mortimer claims were later inherited by the

House of York The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York ...

, which claimed the throne upon the Earl of March

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

's victory in the

Battle of Towton The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire, and "has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil". Fought for ten hours between a ...

, 1461. Members of the noble Mortimer family included: * Ranulph de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore, Herefordshire and Seigneur of St Victor-en-Caux,

, Normandy * Hugh de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore * Roger Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore * Ralph de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore * Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer (1231–1282) ** Isabella Mortimer, Countess of Arundel (after 1247–before 1 April 1292/after 1300) * Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer (1251–1304) * Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (1287–1330) ** Edmund Mortimer (1302–1331) ** Katherine Mortimer, Countess of Warwick (1314–1369) ** Agnes Mortimer, Countess of Pembroke (1317–1368) * Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March (1328–1360) * Thomas Mortimer (c. 1350–1399), illegitimate member of the Mortimer family who opposed Richard II * Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352–1381) ** Lady Philippa Mortimer (1375–1400) ** Edmund Mortimer (1376–1409) * Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374–1398) * Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391–1425)

Other people

* Amanda Jay Mortimer (born 1944), American urban planner and consultant *

Angela Mortimer Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer Barrett, Order of the British Empire, MBE (née Mortimer; born 21 April 1932) is a British former world No. 1 tennis player. Mortimer won three Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam singles titles: the 1955 French Cham ...

(born 1932), British tennis player * Bob Mortimer (born 1959), English comedian and actor * Carole Mortimer (born 1960), English romance novelist * Chris Mortimer (born 1958), Australian rugby league footballer * Conor Mortimer, Irish Gaelic football player * Daniel Mortimer (born 1989), Australian rugby league footballer * Debra Mortimer, Australian judge * Edmund Mortimer (actor) (1874–1944), American actor and film director * Emily Mortimer (born 1971), English actress * Favell Lee Mortimer (1802–1878), English Evangelical author of educational books for children * Frank Mortimer (1932–2009), English rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s * Gary Mortimer (born 1967), English aeronaut * George Ferris Whidborne Mortimer (1805–1871), English schoolmaster and divine * Ian Mortimer (born 1983), Canadian sprint canoeist * Ian Mortimer (historian) (born 1967), British writer * James Mortimer (1833–1911), American chess player, journalist and playwright * James Mortimer (hurdler) (born 1983), New Zealand hurdler * Jill Mortimer, British Conservative politician, former MP for Hartlepool (2021–2024) * John Mortimer (c. 1656 – 1736), English agriculturalist * John Mortimer (1923–2009), British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author * John B. Mortimer, Hong Kong judge * John Hamilton Mortimer (1740–1779), British painter * John Robert Mortimer (1825–1911), Yorkshire corn merchant and archaeologist * Kenneth Mortimer, President Emeritus of Western Washington University, eleventh president of the University of Hawai`i system and Chancellor of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa 1993–2001 * Maddie Mortimer (born 1996), British writer * Mary Mortimer (1816–1877), British-born American educator * Minnie Mortimer (born 1980), American fashion designer and socialite * Richard Mortimer (1852–1918), American real estate investor and society leader * Roger Mortimer (racing) (1909–1991), British horse-racing correspondent * Steve Mortimer (born 1956), Australian rugby league footballer * Thomas Mortimer (1730–1810), English writer in the field of economics *

Tinsley Mortimer Tinsley Randolph Mortimer ( née Mercer; born August 11, 1975) is an American actress, socialite and reality television personality. She is known for starring in the reality television series '' High Society'' and '' The Real Housewives of New Yo ...

(born 1976), American socialite * Tony Mortimer (born 1970), British songwriter, composer, singer and rapper; member of British 1990s pop group East 17

Fictional characters

* Colonel Douglas Mortimer, played by

Lee Van Cleef Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of spaghetti Westerns, particularly t ...

in the film ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' () is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. Klaus Kinski plays a supporting role as a se ...

'' * Dr. Mortimer, in the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

novel ''

The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four Detective fiction, crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serial (literature), serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from ...

'' by Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

* Ignatius Mortimer Meen, the villain in the 1995 video game '' I.M. Meen'' * Lord Mortimer, played by Billy House in the 1946 film '' Bedlam'' * Philip Mortimer, a protagonist in '' Blake and Mortimer'', a Belgian comics series created by Edgar P. Jacobs * Mort (Mortimer), the eponymous protagonist of '' Mort'', 4th novel in the Discworld series by

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

* Mortimer, a duck which comforts Travis Martinez in the show''Yellowjackets''

References

{{surnames English-language surnames Surnames of Norman origin

Norman origins

Medieval magnates

Other people

Fictional characters

See also

References