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Archivesorigin of surnames
I would like to know the origin of the following names: Diamond,Dillard,and Henry
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Diamond
Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of a Jewish surname, spelled in various ways, derived from modern German Diamant, Demant ‘diamond’, or Yiddish dime(n)t, going back to Middle High German diemant (via Latin from Greek adamas ‘unconquerable’, genitive adamantos, a reference to the hardness of the stone). The name is mostly ornamental, one of the many Ashkenazic surnames based on mineral names, though in some cases it may have been adopted by a jeweler.
English: variant of Dayman (see Day). Forms with the excrescent d are not found before the 17th century; they are at least in part the result of folk etymology.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Diamáin ‘descendant of Diamán’, earlier Díomá or Déamán, a diminutive of Díoma, itself a pet form of Diarmaid (see McDermott).
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/fact.aspx?&fid=10&fn=&ln=Diamond
Dillard
English: unexplained; possibly a variant of Dollard. The name was in VA by 1698.Dollard
English: nickname from Middle English dull + -ard ‘dull or stupid person’. Compare Doll 5.
Irish: either an importation to Ireland of the English name or, possibly, a reduced and altered form of de la Hyde (see Dollarhide).
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/fact.aspx?fid=10&ln=Dollard&fn=&yr=1920&
Henry
English and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements haim, heim ‘home’ + ric ‘power’, ‘ruler’, introduced to England by the Normans in the form Henri. During the Middle Ages this name became enormously popular in England and was borne by eight kings. Continental forms of the personal name were equally popular throughout Europe (German Heinrich, French Henri, Italian Enrico and Arrigo, Czech Jindrich, etc.). As an American family name, the English form Henry has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this ancient name in continental European languages.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of a Jewish surname, spelled in various ways, derived from modern German Diamant, Demant ‘diamond’, or Yiddish dime(n)t, going back to Middle High German diemant (via Latin from Greek adamas ‘unconquerable’, genitive adamantos, a reference to the hardness of the stone). The name is mostly ornamental, one of the many Ashkenazic surnames based on mineral names, though in some cases it may have been adopted by a jeweler.
English: variant of Dayman (see Day). Forms with the excrescent d are not found before the 17th century; they are at least in part the result of folk etymology.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Diamáin ‘descendant of Diamán’, earlier Díomá or Déamán, a diminutive of Díoma, itself a pet form of Diarmaid (see McDermott).
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/fact.aspx?&fid=10&fn=&ln=Diamond
Dillard
English: unexplained; possibly a variant of Dollard. The name was in VA by 1698.Dollard
English: nickname from Middle English dull + -ard ‘dull or stupid person’. Compare Doll 5.
Irish: either an importation to Ireland of the English name or, possibly, a reduced and altered form of de la Hyde (see Dollarhide).
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/fact.aspx?fid=10&ln=Dollard&fn=&yr=1920&
Henry
English and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements haim, heim ‘home’ + ric ‘power’, ‘ruler’, introduced to England by the Normans in the form Henri. During the Middle Ages this name became enormously popular in England and was borne by eight kings. Continental forms of the personal name were equally popular throughout Europe (German Heinrich, French Henri, Italian Enrico and Arrigo, Czech Jindrich, etc.). As an American family name, the English form Henry has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this ancient name in continental European languages.
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