Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : probably a topographic name for someone who lived in the lodge at the entrance to a manor house, from Middle English port ‘gateway’, ‘entrance’ + hous ‘house’, or an occupational name with similar meaning, from Latin portarius ‘porter’. Alternatively, as suggested by Reaney, it may be from Anglo-Norman French porte-hors ‘portable prayerbook’ (i.e. a book of hours), hence a metonymic occupational name for a scribe employed in writing such books. The surname is also established in Ireland, the earliest record of its presence there being dated 1563.