Surname:Davis

According to Wikipedia, Davis as a Welsh surname, may be a corruption of Dyfed, itself a corruption of Dési, related to colonists from southeastern Ireland who occupied the old tribal area of the Demetae in southwest Wales in the late third century AD. Also, the Welsh Davies is pronounced as "Davis" leading to corruption upon transcription of verbal communication, such as during documentation related to immigration or census taking.^{2-Davies-Davis History}

Prevalence

According to a 1900 magazine publication, Davis, and its close relative Davies, were among the most common of surnames in England at the turn of the 20th century.^1-Surnames Part of the prevalence has been attributed to the many variations of the name.^{2-Davies-Davis History}

Davis family tree and history-related websites

• Davis Surname DNA Project: Testing results page hosted at RootsWeb.

  NOTE this page may return a DNS Error 1000 "DNS points to prohibited IP"

  This page was last recorded at archive.org in 2017.

• Davis WorldConnect tree: Descendants of the Davis family of Essex County, MA with a concentration of the descendants of Cornelius Davis, 2nd (1693-1779), one of the original settlers of Stafford, Connecticut and the Millay family of Sagadahoc County, ME, primarily the descendants of James Millay (1755-1817) of County Kilkenny, Ireland.

  NOTE this page may return a DNS Error 1000 "DNS points to prohibited IP"

  This page was last recorded at archive.org in 2017.

• The Davis Family History Pages: Family history including some of the descendants of Thomas Davis of Acton-Turville, Gloucestershire, England. Includes family immigrants and colonists between 1500-1847. Created by Mark K. Davis and hosted at RootsWeb. See Source:Davis Family History Pages.

  NOTE this page may return a DNS Error 1000 "DNS points to prohibited IP"

  This page was last recorded at archive.org in 2015.

Wikipedia

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Davis as a Welsh surname may be a corruption of Dyfed, related to Irish colonists who occupied an area of southwest Wales in the late third century and established a dynasty there which lasted five centuries. Dyfed is recorded as a surname as late as the twelfth century, e.g. Gwynfard Dyfed, born 1175. Dafydd (generally translated into English as David) appears as a given name in the thirteenth century, e.g. Dafydd ap Gruffydd (1238–1283), Prince of Wales, and Dafydd ab Edmwnd, a Welsh poet. Alternatively, Davis may be a patronymic surname (son of David).

Davis is the 45th most common surname in England and 68th most common in Wales.^[1] According to the 2000 United States census, it is the seventh most frequently reported surname, accounting for 0.48% of the population, preceding Garcia and following Miller. It was the seventh most common surname in the United States in 2014.^[1] It is also recorded in the spellings of Davies, Davison and several others.

Sources

1. "Surnames" in Tilley, Risbrough Hammett, and Eben Putnam. Genealogical quarterly magazine. (Salem, Mass: Eben Putnam). 1900 year volume, page 100.
2. "Davies-Davis History" in Source:Nolan, Thomas M. History of the Davies-Davis Family, 1990, page 4.