De la Motte
De la Motte , also written de La Motte , is a family name.
On the meaning of the name "de la Motte"
The family name "de la Motte" is one of the names derived from a place name. The word “motte” and its root “mot” - Low German “mud” or “modder” - actually means mud, black earth, clod of earth or a small hill.
In a derived sense, “la motte” means a natural or artificial increase in the ground, e.g. B. a mill or a castle, in the historical sense of the feudal period, a hill, erected at a manor or castle as a sign of sovereignty, further the castle itself and the court of the seigneur, the lord of the castle. " La motte " was also the name of the old refuges in Romanic countries, piled up and fortified castle hills in marshland or surrounded by water, created especially from the 9th to the 12th century to protect against enemies:
“In this time of disorder and violence, the free and aristocratic feudal men of the sovereign erected a building on an artificial mound in a suitable place, fortified by ditches and a high tower. These were the “moths” of feudalism, the traces of which still exist in our villages. Each of these "moths" became the center and seat of one of the small aristocratic estates ("seugneuries") that divided the land among themselves during the feudal period. " (Lefevre Lefort)
Such “moths” gave names to various villages, country estates and lordships at an early stage. This explains the relative frequency of the name in France in the various forms de la Motte, Lamotte, La Mote, La Mothe and others. Ä., But also in Germany.
Name bearer
- Antoine-Claude-Pierre Masson de La Motte-Conflans (1727–1801), French advocate and encyclopedia
- Antoine Houdar de la Motte (1672–1731), French playwright, librettist and poet
- August de la Motte (1713–1788), Kur-Braunschweigischer-Lüneburgischer Lieutenant General
- Belshazzar de la Motte Hacquet († 1815), Austrian naturalist, see Belshazzar Hacquet
- Caroline de la Motte Fouqué (born von Briest; 1773–1831), German romantic writer
- Charles Antoine Houdar de La Motte (1773–1806), French infantry colonel
- Charles-Jean de La Motte-Vauvert (1782–1860), from 1827 to 1860 bishop of the French diocese of Vannes
- Christian de la Motte (* 1966) German magician
- Diether de la Motte (1928–2010), German musician, composer and music theorist
- Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (pseudonyms "Pellegrin" and "ALT Frank", 1777–1843), German romantic poet
- Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué (Major General) (1843–1921), German general
- Ernst August de la Chevallerie von la Motte (1688–1758), Prussian general, governor of Geldern
- Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué (1698–1774), Prussian general
- Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouqué (* 1701; † after 1775), royal Prussian colonel
- Helga de la Motte-Haber (* 1938), German musicologist
- Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon (1648–1717), representative of mystical quietism
- Peter de La Motte (1765–1837), Bavarian lieutenant general
- Manfred de la Motte (1935–2005), German art historian
- Marguerite De La Motte (1902–1950), American actress and dancer of the silent film era
- Maximilian Joseph de la Motte (1809–1887), senior Bavarian administrative officer
- Pierre-Marie Lambert de la Motte (1624–1679), French missionary bishop
- Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte (1720–1791), French admiral
- Jeanne de Saint-Rémy , Comtesse de La Motte (1756–1791), French nobleman; convicted of the collar affair