The original Old English term of ‘gatu’ referred to a gate or doorway and developed into the surname of Gates. Variations in the spelling of Gates include Jate, Gait, Yate, Goetz and Yates. In England the Gates surname is widespread across England and Wales, but primarily located in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Essex, Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire and the city of London. In Scotland the Gates name is found in Midlothian and Lanarkshire counties. Within the United States Gates families are predominantly living in Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, California, Washington, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. Famous: Bill Gates (chairman of Microsoft), William ‘Pop’ gates (Harlem Globetrotter), William ‘Swiftwater’ Gates (frontiersman and miner during the Klondike Gold Rush), Charles Gates, Jr. (founder of Gates Rubber Company), Elisabeth Gates (arrived in America on the ship Mayflower in 1621), Horatio L. Gates (American general during the American Revolutionary War), John Warne Gates (19th century industrialist of barbed wire) and Gareth Gates (English musician).