Ultimately, the name comes from Old English cot, “cottage.” The surname is from the old dative plural cotum, roughly meaning “[he who comes from / dwells at the] cottages.”
What? That’s what the OP asked, isn’t it?
And there was Cotton Gin, which was a commercial failure because no one wanted fluffy martinis.
Yep! Thanks.
But the rest is fun, too.
I’m off to my cottage (shotgun shack).
We really, really need a “shakehead” smily. It would fit nicely between 
and :rolleyes: .
mangeorge
My wife’s step-dad goes by Cotton, although it is not his given name. Again, it’s because he had very pale, almost white hair as a child.
Isn’t it a reference to the Hebrew phrase “He will increase,” which is apparently the meaning ascribed to the name “Joseph”? (Of course, it makes you wonder why Increase Mather’s father didn’t simply name him Joseph. Maybe he didn’t like “Joe.”)
John Cotton was the hero of Bless the Beasts and Children. All the main characters go by their last names in the story.
Here is where I get to tell everyone that I personally know a relative of Cotton Mather. (Only in New England!)
Wiki claims: The stated reason for his first name was “…the never-to-be-forgotten increase, of every sort, wherewith God favoured the country about the time of his nativity.”