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Recorded as Daily, Dailly, Dailey, and Daley, this is an interesting surname. When found in England or Scotland, it may be either French or Irish in origin. If French it was probably introduced into England at the famous of 1066, and was a name from any of several places called Oilly in Calvados. To this place name in England was added the fused preposition "de," to mean "of Oilly", as in the first recording below. The placename is from the Roman "Ollius," the later Oliver, as in the olive tree. Locational surnames were amongst the first to be created, and were originally given to the local , and later as easy identification to those who left their original homesteads to settle elsewhere. An English example of a very early recording is that of Henry Dayly in the of Oxfordshire in 1279. If Irish the origin is the name Dalaigh. This means "The male descendant of Dalach", a personal name translating as meeting or assembly! The O' Dalaigh ancestry goes back to the 4th Century a.d., and specifically to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages, the of Tara, County Meath.

List Ancestral records for:- Dailly

The O' Dalaighs were very prominent in records, when their extraordinary genius for literature was manifest in the bardic school set up by Cuconnacht O' Dalaigh in Westmeath. Early examples of recordings include James Dailey, at St. Mary Whitchapel, Stepney, in the city of London on June 19th 1701, and Samuel Daley, christened on June 24th 1757, at Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ireland. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Oilgi. This was dated 1086, in the Book of England, during the reign of King William 1st, known as "", 1066 - 1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as . Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing of the original spelling.
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