Recorded in a number of forms including Dorow, Dorrow, Dorro, Dorar, and Dorror, however spelt, this is a very rare surname. Its origins are at best speculative. It may be of Portugese locational or residential origins from the region in the north of that country called the Dourro, which is also the name of the main river, or more likely it may be from the French diminutive Dorot, itself from the original surname Dore, meaning gold. As such it was a nickname surname for a goldsmith or banker, or perhaps a person with particularly golden hair. The lateness of the recordings in England suggests that it may be either Huguenot or perhaps royalist, in that the recording dates do coincide both with the general end of Huguenot persecution in France and the start of the Republican Revolution of 1789-92. This period saw a major exodus of people from France considered to be potential enemies of the state, which was to say anybody with royalist beliefs. In this case there are a number of recordings in the surviving 18th century church registers of the city of London. They may well be "related", but if so we have not been able to definately ascertain that as a fact. These recordings include Ann Dorro, the daughter of James Dorro, christened at the famous church of St Mary-le-Bone, on September 8th 1771, Antony Dorar, a witness at the same church, on February 18th 1798, and Mary Dorrow, who married William Bigg at St Matthews, Bethnal Green, on September 11th 1809.

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