Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Toniscote 1086 DB

• Cotes 1194 Abbr 1220 MHW 1814 MiscAccts

• Cotes Deyvill 1285 FA

• Cotes Devile 1301 Ass

• Cotes Dayville 1330 Ipm

• Cotes Devyle 1507 ib

• Cotes Devyll 1550 Pat

• Cotes Deval 1814 MiscAccts

• Cotes iuxta Morton al' Cotyn 1330 Ipm

• Coates 1606 Terrier 1709,1730 MiscAccts

Etymology

Originally 'the cottage(s) of a man called Tone', v. cot (cotu nom.pl.), with the OE  masc. pers.n. Tone (Redin 137). Later, simply 'the cottages', as a ME secondary plural cotes . The single surviving form Cotyn of 1330 preserves the early dat.pl. cotum . Eventually, the feudal affix Deyvill was added, the name of a family possibly in origin from Deville in Normandy. Also styled D 'Eyvill , they held land in Warwickshire in the 13th cent., but the affix here is the only evidence to indicate that they held land in Leicestershire also. Modern misdivision (metanalysis) of the feudal surname has created a pseudo-French form, ~ de Val 'of the Vale'.