|
The “Dailey” Name
Before the American Revolution, at least four different variations of the Dailey name have been documented: French, English, Scotch-Irish, and Irish.
There were never many French in the British Colonies, but there was a prominent pre-Revolutionary French d’Ally family in New Jersey. Several descendents of this family later settled in North Carolina. There were also a few English “Dally” immigrants, one family arrived in Maine in the 1600s and later settled in New Jersey. Two very different groups of Daileys immigrated from Ireland and account for most of the Daileys in America.
The first group of Irish to arrive in the colonies left from Northern Ireland, but there ancestors were originally from the border region between Scotland and England. The group is now usually referred to as the Scotch-Irish or the Ulster Scots. Beginning in the early 1600s, many border Scots moved to the Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland—some were forced to relocate by the British while others left freely to secure good land. While in Ireland, they retained their Scottish Presbyterian identity and did not mingle with either the native Irish Catholics or the English Anglicans. They were a freedom-loving lot, staunch Presbyterians, and continued to be a thorn in the side of the English authorities. Many prospered and multiplied, but as Presbyterians, they were unable to hold public office or even legally marry—their descendents were considered bastards. During the first half of the eighteenth century, economic and religious pressures mounted against them eventually prompting many to leave for the colonies.
The Scotch-Irish typically spelled Daily name with an ‘i’ possibly after the village of “Daily” in southwestern Scotland from where they may have originated. The name comes from the Gaelic word for field or meadow, appropriate since the region has been described as “not exceeded by any in the County for beauty.” Daily is not common a Scotch-Irish surname, but it has been documented in New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary War.
The Irish Catholic “Dalys” were the last to arrive in America, most immigrating after the American Revolution. During the mid-1800s, large numbers of native Irish were driven from their homeland by oppression and famine. The Irish version of the name has an ancient origin which has been traced back to the fourth century in Ireland. The earliest Gaelic form was “Siel-na-Dalaigh” or “one who is present for assemblies.” The root word is Dail, now the official title of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. The earliest recording of the name was Cuchonnacht O’Dalaigh who . . . was noted for his learning. He died in 1139.” The introduction of the English language into Ireland in the twelfth century caused several variations of the name to come into use: O’Daly, Daly, Daley, Dailey, Dayley, Dawlie. In Ireland, Daly is one of the top 25 most common surnames.
Over time, the spellings of the name from all four heritages have tended to converge, to be Americanized into “Dailey.” Often, the process was aided by government clerks and census takers who recorded the names. The varied spellings of our name in public records possibly indicate that many of them could read or write. One early spelling of “Dealy” may represent a Scotch-Irish phonetic spelling of the name.
“Dailey” is a relatively uncommon surname in the US. In the 2000 census, there were only 44,225 in total, or 0.011% of the population. The ranking was 1072, the same as in 1990. At this time, the surname is fairly evenly distributed across the United States.
|
