Batemans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name, most notably borne by the protagonist of a satirical novel about an affluent Manhattan businessman
2. A surname recognizable in popular culture, particularly through a darkly comic literary work centered on a wealthy investment banker
3. A family name known chiefly as the designation of a fictional character in a satirical work of contemporary fiction

Etymology: "Batemans" is the plural of the English surname Bateman, which is a patronymic-style name, likely from a medieval personal name such as Bate (a short form of Bartholomew) plus "man," meaning a servant or follower. The plural form, without an apostrophe, most often names a place or business rather than a family. Batemans Bay on the New South Wales coast takes its name from a early European mariner called Bateman, though the exact identity of that man is not something I can confirm. The name is more widely known through Batemans Brewery in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, a family brewery that dates to the late nineteenth century. Its name is a direct use of the family surname. Readers who meant the possessive "Bateman's" may be thinking of Bateman's, the Sussex home of Rudyard Kipling, which he bought in 1902. That house carries the surname in its possessive form, and the apostrophe marks it as the Bateman family's property.