ELIJAH COTTON

Biblical name (meaning ‘Yahweh is God’ in Hebrew), borne by an Israelite prophet whose exploits are recounted in the First and Second Book of Kings. Elijah's victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel played an important part in maintaining the Jewish religion, recognizing just one God. This story, and other stories in which he figures, including his conflicts with Ahab's queen, Jezebel, and his prophecies of doom, are among the most vivid in the Bible. For some reason it has not been much used as a given name by Christians, although it is found among the early Puritan settlers in New England and in the U.K. in the 18th century. In the 1960s and 70s it gained considerable popularity among Black Muslims.

English: habitational name from any of numerous places named from Old English cotum (dative plural of cot) ‘at the cottages or huts’ (or sometimes possibly from a Middle English plural, coten). Examples include Coton (Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire), Cottam (East Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire), and Cotham (Nottinghamshire).