Scottish, from the Gaelic given male name and surname Dùbhghlas, "dark water", derived from a stream in the lands of the Lord of Douglas in Lanarkshire, Scotland, where Douglas was the surname.
Douglas is extremely rare as a female name, but is found in Scotland.
A correspondent [SC] reports one female Douglas born in 1858 in Ormiston, East Lothian, another one in the 1841 Census for New Cumnock in Ayrshire, born 1828/9 and two born in North Berwick in the Scottish Borders in 1832 and 1874. A Douglass female was recorded in the 1841 Census for Melrose in the Scottish Borders, aged 9, possibly a re-spelling of the one born in N. Berwick in 1832.
Another correspondent (PW) has found a large number of examples of Douglas as a female name in northern England in the first part of the 18th century and earlier. |
