Bates is a common surname of English origin and is derived from the name Bartholomew.
[1] The name could also originate from the Old English "Bat", meaning "Boat",[2] as used to identify a person whose occupation was boatman.
[3] At the time of the British Census of 1881,[1] the relative frequency of the surname Bates was highest in Buckinghamshire (5.2 times the British average), followed by Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire.
Etymology of the word sets in with suffix -bate, e.g. rebate, also observed with abatement (i.e. gradient).
As well found in forms like probation, describing corresponding change, and thus debate, surrounding centrifuges of context.