Delamar

This distinguished name is one of the variant Anglicized forms of the Old Norman French surname "de La Mare" introduced into England following the Conquest of 1066, and originally a locational name from one of the places in Normandy called "La Mare", from the Old Norman French "la", the, and "mare", pool, pond; the fusion of the preposition "de", of, was of early medieval origin. Many Later forms of the name result from the medieval English understanding of the surname as being derived from the Anglo-Norman French "de la", of the, with the Middle English "mere", pool, or "more", moor, creating topographical surnames for those resident by a lake, pool, marsh, or moor. Early examples of the name include: Coleman de Lamora (1135, Northamptonshire); Robert de la Mare (1190, Suffolk); William de la Mere (1260, Essex); and Henry Dalamare (1385, Yorkshire). The Anglicized variants of the surname range from Delamar(e), Delamere, Delamore and Dallimore to Dillamore, Dol(l)amore, Dolle(y)more and Dollimore. Some bearers of the modern surname may derive from a French Huguenot family who fled to Britain to escape religious persecution during the 17th and early 18th Centuries; Pierre, son of Antoine De la Marre, was christened at the Threadneedle Street French Huguenot Church in London, on December 23rd 1632. Many of the name settled in the Eastern Counties; William Dillamore was married to Sarah Costin at St. Mary's, Tuddenham, Suffolk, on October 31st 1695. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry de Lamara, which was dated 1130, in the "Pipe Rolls of Oxfordshire", during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.