Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Spanish and Portuguese : topographic name for someone who lived by a fortified stronghold, from mot(t)a, a borrowing from Old French motte (see Motte 1).
  • Spanish : habitational name from places in the provinces of Cuenca and Valladolid named Mota.
  • Catalan : topographic name from mota ‘hillock’, denoting someone who lived by a hillock.
  • Catalan : habitational name from places in Girona and Valencia.