Dallas
A Scottish surname taken from a place name, most famously the parish and burgh of Dallas in Moray.
The #3,761 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,782 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dallas is a locational surname from the Scottish place-name Dallas in Moray. The historical sources point to medieval forms such as De Dallas, with older spellings also given as De Doleys and Dollas. One older explanation links the place-name to Gaelic elements, but the exact place-name origin is not fully settled in these excerpts.
History
The surname appears in medieval Scottish records with the prefix de, showing that it began as a designation for someone from the place. It later spread beyond Scotland and is found in English records as well. In some older surname dictionaries, Dallas is also treated alongside other place-name surnames from Britain, and later bearers helped carry it into wider use.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The best-known place linked to the name is Dallas in Moray, not the much more famous American city; the surname was already in medieval use centuries earlier.
From the historical record
“lison. DALLAS. Aparish in co.iMoray. The name is traced by Douglas to the year 1298, as De Dallas. Other ancient orthographies are De Doleys and Dollas. DALLAWAY. Dallwey occurs without prefix, in H.R. co. Lincoln. DALLING. A parish in Norfolk. DALLINGTON. A jwrish in Sussex.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom