Dalziel, Dalzell or Dalyell is a Scottish surname. It is pronounced /diːˈɛl/ dee-EL, though pronunciation with a /z/ may be heard outside Scotland.
The unintuitive spelling of the name is due to it being an anglicisation of Gaelic Dail-gheal, meaning bright dale. The sound now spelled with a <y> or <z> is historically a lenited slender /ɡ/, which in Gaelic is pronounced [j] (like English <y>). The English form of the name was originally spelled with a <ȝ> (yogh); this was later replaced with either a <z>, the letter of the modern alphabet which most looks like yogh, or a <y>, which more closely represents the sound.
The name originates from the former barony of Dalzell in Lanarkshire, in the area now occupied by Motherwell. The name Dalzell is first recorded in 1259, and Thomas de Dalzell fought at Bannockburn. The Dalzell lands were forfeited later in the 14th century, but regained through marriage in the 15th. Sir Robert Dalzell was created Lord Dalzell in 1628, and his son was further elevated in the peerage as Earl of Carnwath, in 1639. In 1645 the Dalzell estates were sold to the Hamiltons of Orbiston, who held them until the 20th century.
The Dalziel coat of arms is sable, a man's body proper, i.e. the flesh-coloured silhouette of a man against a black background. Scottish emigration has dispersed the Dalziel family across the English-speaking world.
People with this surname include:
Dalyell
Dalyell baronets
Sir John Graham Dalyell, Scottish antiquary and naturalist
Tam Dalyell of the Binns (1615–1685), Scottish General, also spelled Dalzell or Dalziel
Tam Dalyell (1932–2017), British Labour politician
Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 1st Baronet (died c. 1700)
Elsie Dalyell (1881–1948), Australian pathologist
Dalzell
William J. Dalzell (1929-1994), US Navy, Retired; American Businessman
John Dalzell (1845–1927), U.S. Representative
Rick Dalzell (born 1957), American businessman
Stewart Dalzell (born 1943), American judge
Dalziel
Bobby Dalziel, Scottish footballer
Brothers Dalziel, a firm of Victorian engravers founded in 1839 by George and Edward Dalziel, and assisted by John and Thomas Dalziel (see below)
Charles Dalziel (1904–1986), American professor of engineering
Davison Dalziel, 1st Baron Dalziel of Wooler (1852–1928), Scottish businessman and Conservative politician
Gordon Dalziel (born 1962), Former Scottish Footballer and Manager
Henry Dalziel (1893–1965), Australian war hero
Henry Dalziel, 1st Baron Dalziel of Kirkcaldy (1868–1935), Scottish Liberal politician
Ian Dalziel (born 1947), British businessman and politician
John McEwan Dalziel (1872-1948), British botanist, physician and scientific explorer
Kathleen Dalziel (1881-1969), Australian poet
Keith Dalziel (1921–1994), Biochemist and Fellow of The Royal Society
Lianne Dalziel (born 1960), New Zealand MP
Nigel R Dalziel (born 1958), British historian and publisher
Ryan Dalziel (born 1982), British race car driver
Scott Dalziel (born 1985), Scottish footballer
Stuart Dalziel (born 1963), British and New Zealand fluid dynamicist
Thomas Dalziel (1823–1906), engraver
Diana Vreeland (1903-1989), born Diana Dalziel, noted fashion magazine editor
Graeme Dalziel (born 1956), Former Chief Executive of Dunfermline Building Society, Finance Director of the Year 2001 and HRH Prince of Wales Ambassador for Scottish Business in the Community 2004
John Dalziel (born 1982), Radio presenter
Fictional people
Andrew Dalziel, fictitious detective in literature and television, part of the team Dalziel and Pascoe created by Reginald Hill.
Royce Varisey, tenth Duke of Wolverstone went by the codename 'Dalziel' (his mother's family name) throughout the Napoleonic Wars in the Bastion Club series of romance novels by Stephanie Laurens.
The would-be heroic Willie Dalzel, a boy of about six or eight and friend to Jimmie Trescott, is a minor character in Stephen Crane's novella, The Monster (1898).
Clay Dalzell, lawyer/detective played by William Powell in the movie, "Star of Midnight" (1936), based upon the novel by Arthur Roche.
People with the given name:
Dalziel Hammick (1887-1966), British chemist
Motherwell still contains Dalziel Parish, a congregation of the Church of Scotland, as well as the Dalzell Steelworks, now owned by Liberty House. The estate of Dalziel House, the former home of the Baron Hamilton of Dalzell, is now a country park on the south side of the town. Dalziel Rugby Club play at Dalziel Park in nearby Carfin. The name is also used by several Motherwell-based institutions, including Dalziel High School and the former Dalziel Co-operative Society. Dalziel Park Stadium was a nineteenth-century football stadium that was the home of the town's football team Motherwell F.C..
