This uncommon surname is a patronymic form of the Olde English pre 7th Century male given name "Dylla", Middle English "Dulle, Dille, Delle", itself having an interesting, if complicated, history. As well as being recorded independently, "Dylla, Dulle" forms the initial element of several placenames, for example, Dillington in Huntingdonshire and Somerset, recorded variously as "Dilingtune, Dulintone" and "Dilyngton" in Anglo-Saxon and medieval documents, dated 974 to 1275; Dullingham in Cambridgeshire, entered as "Dullingham" in the Anglo-Saxon Wills Records (1043); and Dilton in Wiltshire, spelt "Dultun" and "Dutton" in the 1222 Book of Fees for Wiltshire. The name appears to be either a shortened form of the rare Olde English personal name "Dylwine", originally recorded in Norfolk", with an uncertain first element, and "wine", friend, or it may correspond to the Old German "Dillo", a byname from the root "dil", destroy. A further possible source is the Olde English "dile, dyle", dill, originally given as a metonymic occupational name to a grower or seller of this medicinal herb, and finally, the Olde English "dylluc", dull, may be the source of the name. One Godfrey Dulle and an Alice le Dul were recorded respectively in the 1202 Feet of Fines for Norfolk and the 1279 Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire. On October 18th 1698, the christening of Mary Dulson took place at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Godwin Dul, which was dated 1185, in the "Pipe Rolls of Hampshire", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024