This interesting surname is a Scottish habitational name from a place near Dunfermline, or from the lands of Dalgety or Delgaty in Aberdeenshire, formerly belonging to a family of that name so called from the Gaelic word "dealg", prickle. The name first appears in records in the late 16th Century. One David Delegate was a retoured heir to Margaret Butchert in 1649, according to the Scottish public archives. The name has been made famous by Scott's "Dugald Dalgetty" in a "Legend of Montrose". The name is found in records as "Dalgitie" (1672) and "Daigati". In the county of Fife, at the church of St. Andrews and St. Leonard's, Alexander Dalgety married Janet Hamilton on September 2nd 1789. At Old Machr's, Aberdeen, on May 16th 1818, David Dalgety married Rebekah Rowland. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hercules Delgaty, received a grant of forfeited goods in Brechin, which was dated 1594, in the "Registrum episopatus Brechinensis", during the reign of King James V1 of Scotland, 1567 - 1625. 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.