Recorded as Peters, Paters and Patters, this is an English surname. It a patronymic form of the personal name Peter, which itself derives from the Greek "Petros", meaning rock. It is first recorded in its Latinized form of "Petrus" in the Domesday Book of 1086. The surname adopted from this source appears at the end of the 12th Century, Ralph Peter, in the Pipe Rolls of Hertfordshire 1195. The patronymic form emerges in the early half of the 14th Century (see below). The final "s" attached to the name is a reduced form of the English "son of". Hugh Peters (1598 - 1660) was educated at Cambridge in 1622, and his sermons were valuable in winning recruits to the parliamentary army. He also accompanied Cromwell to Ireland in 1649, and was executed at Charing Cross in 1660 as an abettor of the execution of King Charles 1. On December 30th 1679, one Thomas Patters is recorded as being a landholder (60 acres) in St. Lucy's Parish, Barbados. An interesting namebearer was Charles Peters (1695 - 1746), Physician to George 11 (1733) and Physician-General to the army (1744). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Petres, which was dated 1327, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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