This interesting surname with variant spellings Dalloway and Dallow has two distinct possible origins. Firstly, it may be a Norman locational name, with fused preposition "de", from "Alluyes" in Eure-et-Loire. This placename is recorded in the 6th Century in the Latin form "Avallocium", apparently a derivative of the Goulish element "aballo" meaning apple. The surname may also be of topographical origin deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "dael" meaning valley plus "weg" a track or path; hence "dweller by the path to the valley", the "a" being intrusive as in Hathaway, Ottaway etc.. Modern variants of the name are Dalloway and Dallow. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). On December 26th 1588, Mary, daughter of Pet Dallaway, was christened at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and Thomas, son of Thomas and Anne Dallaway, was christened on April 15th 1650, at St. Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, London. A famous namebearer being, James Dallaway (1763-1835), who was a topographer and miscellaneous writer. He wrote on Heraldry, English architecture, and ancient sculpture and edited "The Letters and other Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu", (1803). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Dalwey, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.

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