Domelaw

Recorded as Domelow, Dumelow, Domelaw, Dummelow, Dumlow, Dumbellow, and others, this is a probably an English surname. It is locational, and well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London from Elizabethan times. In our opinion it is probably one of the three thousand known surnames which originate from now "lost" medieval villages. These places, of which more are being discovered all the time, gave rise in England to surnames, but rarely in other parts of the British Isles. It is also just possible that the surname originates from an existing place, where for some reason the spellling has been changed, and any link lost. There are a number of place names in the British Isles that commence with Don or Dun, but few that we know of with Dom or Dum other than Dumfries. If it did originate from a place called Dunlaw or Donlaw or similar we would have two in Ireland and two in Scotland. Although we have no indication that any of these places gave rise to surnames in their relative countries, it is possible that they were so named in England. Early examples of recordings include John Domelaw who married Christiana Chatterton at St Peters Cornhill,in the city of London, on May 13th 1583, and Jonathon Dumbeloe, who was christened at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on December 12th 1593.