Elliot Dold

Elliot (also spelled Eliot, Elliotte, Elliott, Eliott and Elyot) is a personal name which can serve as either a surname or a given name. Although the given name has historically been given to males, females have increasingly been given the name as well in the United States.

The main difference is the surname, which has two roots: The Borderlands of Scotland, where the Clan Eliott was located, and Brittany, from where Bretons emigrated to southern England, initially during the invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066.

Surname origin

Scotland

The origin of the Scottish surname is obscure, due to much of the genealogy of the Eliott clan being burnt in the destruction of the castle at Stobs in 1712. The clan society usually accepts that the name originated from the town and river Elliot in Angus, Scotland. More likely sources claim that the Scottish surnames (Eliott, Elliot) originate from the Ellot Scottish border-clan, from a transformation of the name ''Elwold''. It is known that Ellot of Redheugh was living in the early 1400s. In 1426 John Elwalde of Teviotdale is recorded. In 1476 Robert Ellot of Redheugh appears as the tenth chief of the clan.Way, George and Squire, Romily. ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Published in 1994. Pages 128 - 129. Whatever their true origin, the Scottish Elliotts became notorious border reivers – cattle thieves – in the Scottish-English border area and a thorn in the side of both governments.

The Scottish name origin is discussed by Keith Elliot Hunter on the Elliot Clan website where he argues for a Breton origin to the name and the first chief being William d'Alyth. Under that name, the d'Alyths played a key role in the Scottish Wars of Independence. However, Mark Elliot presents a well-argued case that there is no connection between the Elliot river and town with the clan and believes the origins are in the first name of Elwald, which appears in Northumberland in the 8th century king, Elwald I. The name has Anglo-Saxon origins and appears alongside Armstrong in Northumbrian records dating from 1165. The first chief is claimed to be Robert Elwold (1305–67), who came from York, but migrated to the area around Hermitage Castle Robert Elwold of Redheuch is granted lands around Redheuch and Larriston in the 1484 Sasine deed Robert, 13th clan chief, who was killed at the Battle of Flodden is recorded with the surname 'Elwold'.

The original Anglo-Saxon surnames from Northumbria like Aelwold, Ellwald, Elaund, Elwaird, Elwods, Alwods, Elyards, Halwads seem to have mixed together eventually as Ellot. Sir Arthur and the Dowager Lady Eliott maintained that the family were originally known as Ellots. Lady Elliot in ''The Elliots: The Story of a Border Clan'' says: "Around 1650 someone added an 'I' to our name to make it Elliot, which was without a doubt unfortunate as it confuses the clan with a well-known English Norman family called Eliot who settled in West England". That would exclude the idea that the Cornish Eliots set the clan up a few centuries earlier, but it is said that this was some means of expressing solidarity with John Eliot, who was regularly imprisoned by Charles I until his death in 1632.

A Thomas Elyot is recorded in West Lothian, dying in 1505.

France

It has been argued by Keith Elliott Hunter that the origins of the St. Germans Eliot family were among the Bretons accompanying William the Conqueror. The Breton origin of Eliot and Elliot is indicated by these names being in significant clusters in Morbihan, southern Brittany. One variant in Scotland was Dalliot (or, more likely, d'Alliot) and a variation from the Breton original name Ellegouet, from which the Scots variant Elligott is derived, is to be found in clusters in Finistère

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