Doty
A surname with uncertain roots, but often treated as a Welsh form possibly linked to a place-name or ale-house sign.
The #2,009 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,186 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The old surname dictionaries do not agree on Doty’s origin. One source links it to Welsh Diotty, glossed as an ale-house, while another treats it more generally as a local or place-based name. Because the evidence is thin and possibly confused by similar spellings, the safest conclusion is that Doty is probably a British surname of uncertain derivation, with a possible Welsh connection.
History
The name appears in English and American records by the 19th century, and it became well established in the United States. Some historical writers grouped it with other short surnames that may come from place-names or nicknames, but no single explanation became standard. In modern usage, Doty is especially familiar in North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname writers sometimes placed Doty alongside very short, puzzling names whose meanings were still being debated.
From the historical record
“Saxon, mountaineers. DOTY. Welsh, Diotty, an ale-house. DOUAY. (Fr.) Local. Derived from the town of Douay, in the province of Artois, France. DOUGALL. (Gaelic and Celtic.) The black stranger, from Dhu, black, and gall, a stranger, a term used by the Celts to denote a Lowlander, a foreigner, not one of them. The…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names