Dailly
A Scottish surname taken from Dailly, a parish place-name in Ayrshire.
The #3,205 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 27,381 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is best explained as a habitational name from Dailly in Ayrshire, Scotland. The form probably goes back to a local place-name of Gaelic origin, though the exact older meaning is not certain from the excerpted sources. In surname use, it simply meant someone who came from that place.
History
Lower’s dictionary explicitly gives DAILY as linked to Dailly, the parish in Ayrshire. The spelling has been recorded in forms such as Dailly, Daily, and Daelley, reflecting normal variation in older Scottish and English records. The name is relatively uncommon and remains especially associated with Scottish locational naming patterns.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same surname spelling can also look like the common English adverb ‘daily,’ but in surname use it is usually a place-name surname, not a word-name.
From the historical record
“ment, like Sword, Brownbill, &c. DAILY. DAELLEY. Dailly, a parish in Ayrshire. DAIN". DAINES. See Dane. DAINTRY. Daventry, co. Northamp- ton. DAISY. Possibly from Vnn ancient barony of Aisie (D Aisie) in the arrondisse- ment of Pont Audemer in Normandy — now written Aisier.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom