Message: "Re: Dillard not a real name?!?"

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Re: Dillard not a real name?!?

by Cleveland Kent Evans (guest)

6/25/2005, 10:09 AM

Dillard is indeed originally a surname. It is quite common in parts of the state of Virginia. Unfortunately the only dictionary I have in my office that includes it is _The Encyclopedia of American Family Names_ by Robb and Chesler. That one is not the most reliable source for etymology; it claims it is a variation of the surname Dill, and Reaney & Wilson's _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ says that the origin of Dill as a surname is difficult to figure out; if may go back to an Old English given name, Dylla; it could be from a nickname, Dull (meaning unfortunately about the same thing that it would today); or it could be for someone who sold the spice Dill. But I think we need more evidence before assuming Dillard is really connected with Dill.

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- amy (guest) +2

6/27/2005, 9:49 AM

might be named after Annie Dillard, a famous American writer.

- oneway21001

6/27/2005, 8:18 PM

Actually if one simply looks the parts of this name up in any good Webster's there is a lot of very interesting information there about it.

- oneway21001

6/27/2005, 8:16 PM

Dillard is an English surname but, it could be (and evidently did since it is a friend"s name) made to become a first or middle name. It was not uncommon for people to use a family surname as a middle or first name by many people who descend from the peoples of the British Isles.

I knew a man once name Dillart, it could be the same name to, but he was German and in German d's are prounounced as t's. I think the deriviative of the "dill weed" a pickling spice could very well be where it comes from and likely it actually started out as some nickname for a specific person in orders for indentification amoung other people, and came to be a surname associated with the descendents of that family. Perhaps they pickled food for their livelyhood.

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