This was all posted on Electric Scotland and ancestry.com. It may be remarked that the prefix Dal is not, or at least not often, as generally stated, from the Saxon dahl or dale, but is more frequently a corruption of the Norman del or de la, as Dalmellington, De la mouline-ton, of the town of the mill. Dalgarnock may therefore imply Del-garnock, or de la garneoca, of the large enclosure or defence for cattle, - garne in old French signifying a defence. In the early 1100s few surnames were recorded. The surname Dalgarno comes from Dalgarnock which in turn comes from the Gaelic dal gairneig meaning the field of the little stream. All that remains of Dalgarnock now is the Covenanters' Graveyard. The village of New Dalgarno was situated west of Thornhill, the two villages linked up, became one named Thornhill. DALGARNO >From the lands of Dalgarnock in Dumfriesshire.The old family of Dalgarno of that ilk,however,were in Aberdeenshore. In 1262,William de Dalgarnoc,rector of Rathen in the diocese of at Andrews,had a dispensation to hold the church of Aberbrothoc then held by him "in commendam" (Papal ,letter,1 page 382) William de Dalgernok,preceptor of David 11 was abbot of Kelso,1329 (REG.,page 45-246) Johannes de Dalgarnock,burgess of Aberbrothoc,1333 (E.R.,1,p.610 John Dalgaernet,a monk,was a charter witness in 1333 (papal letter Johannes de Dalgarnok,burgess of Aberdeen,1366,is probably the same Laird of estires-syntoly in Durris It goes on and on. I think it more likely to be a Norman/French rather than a Scottish name. Gordon

It seems as though we could never exhaust the topic of name variations. A cousin of mine asked "Who put the additional "n" in our name?" Some names appear to have been changed because someone wrote them, transcribed them or pronounced them differently. Did that apply to Parish records or was it after formal registration?. I find both applies. I have an OPR marriage without the "n" and an OPR birth with the "n". One could perhaps ask frivolously, "Did someone get to the edge of the page and not put another consonant on the name where it should have had two?" I suspect we may never have clear answers but I would like to get near to realising the facts. Has anyone done a study of a name change? Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon McLeod" <gordon@shieldaig.com> > This was all posted on Electric Scotland and ancestry.com. > > It may be remarked that the prefix Dal is not, or at least not often, as > generally stated, from the Saxon dahl or dale, but is more frequently a > corruption of the Norman del or de la, as Dalmellington, De la mouline-ton, > of the town of the mill. Dalgarnock may therefore imply Del-garnock, or de > la garneoca, of the large enclosure or defence for cattle, - garne in old > French signifying a defence. > > In the early 1100s few surnames were recorded. The surname Dalgarno comes > from Dalgarnock which in turn comes from the Gaelic dal gairneig meaning the