3,009 Global SHORTT Family Members

SHORTT Family History

This interesting and long-established surname is of early medieval English and Gaelic origin, and is either an Anglicized form of the Gaelic "Mac an Gheaire", from the elements "Mac" meaning "son of", and the personal name "Gheaire", from "giorr", short; hence "the son of the short man", or it can be from a nickname for a person of low stature, deriving from the Middle English "schort" (Olde English pre 7th Century "sceort"), meaning "short". The surname dates back to the late 12th Century (see below), and other early recordings include: Richard le Sorte in the 1269 Assize Court Rolls of Somerset, and William Short in the 1273 Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk.