Playterville: Origin of the Name

Hanging on my wall is one of those framed documents that I bought at the local mall containing a reproduction of a Playter (or Plater) Coat of Arms. Now I know that this coat of arms may not necessarily be for my family, but it is a great conversation piece none the less.

It is always interesting to find out the origin or translation of one's name. How often do we meet someone from across the ocean with an interesting sounding name, and ask them what their name means? How often do we ask that of our own names?

I have come across a couple of plausible origins of the name Playter/Plater, and I wanted to share them with you. Let me know what you think!

An English origin is fairly obvious: a Plater is someone who makes plates! Now this could be something simple, like plates that you eat off of or serve food on. Or, for the more romantic minded, someone who makes armour, like breast plates, plate mail, etc.

There is also a possible French connection to the name Playter/Plater. The name could also have originated with the French word "Plaider" meaning "to Plead", as in what a lawyer would do.

Another interesting direction for my surname is when you look for the phonetic translation of the name into Chinese! If you break the name into three sounds: PL - LAY - TER a phonetic translation would be PUO - WEI - TER. Litterally, puo means "wave", wei means "great", and ter means "extraordinary, special, unique, outstanding". So, PLAYTER means OUTSTANDING GREAT WAVE, or if I am allowed some poetic license: TSUNAMI. How is that for a conversation piece?

Here are the Chinese characters for puo, wei, and ter: