Dole
A surname that likely began as a place-name or boundary-mark term, and in some cases may also reflect a local town-name in Brittany.
The #9,884 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 94,389 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Dole is most plausibly locational, built from a word meaning a share, portion, or boundary division, especially a field-mark or land division. In English place-names, related forms could refer either to a boundary marker or to a low, flat place in some regional dialects. The name may also, in some families, point to the town of Dol in Brittany, which appears in older surname records as De Dol or similar forms.
History
19th-century surname writers treated Dole as a mainly local surname, with parallel forms such as Deal, Deale, and Dolle. English bearers may have taken the name from a place or from a distinctive boundary feature near their home. Some instances may also descend from continental place-names, especially the Breton town of Dol.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older sources note that in some English dialects a "dole" could mean a boundary mark made by a mound or a post.
From the historical record
“DOLE. 1. Dole or doole is an eastern and southern provincialism for a boundary mark, whether an earthen mound or a post of stone or wood. In the western counties it means alow, flat, place. Halliw. 2. Dol, a Avell known town in Brittany. Doll, Dolle, De Doll. H.R. DOLLAR. A town and parish in Clack- mannanshire.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom