Origins of Name

The name DELGATIE is Pictish in origin, and refers to the ancient Lands of Delgatie near Brechin in Angus.

The Picts are originally thought to have migrated northwards from Brittany about 3500 years ago, settling eventually in North East Scotland. With rivals to the west, the Highlanders of the Western Isles, and being compressed from the north by the Orcadian Vikings, the Picts were left with a territory on the eastern coast from Inverness, south to Edinburgh.

DELGATIE will not have been in use as a surname before the Norman Conquest in 1066, but would probably have been adopted before the reign of Edward II (1307-1327), when the use of surnames had become widespread amongst the general population.

An early use of the name was in 1178, when Pope Alexander III decreed that a church be built at Dalgetty, named because of the farm which existed there. This is the origin of the town known today as Dalgety Bay, Fife.

The earliest known use as a surname is in 1594, when a grant was made to Hercules Delgaty of the forfeiture of the goods of Robert Low in Brechin, Angus.

As with a lot of surnames, DELGATIE has been treated with some imagination when it has come to spelling. The 'ie' was replaced with a 'y', and the Scots accent resulted in the phonetic interpretation 'Dalgety'. In many cases, an extra 't' was added to produce 'Dalgetty'. This latter modification seems to have occurred mainly in the 19th century. These two represent the majority of the name variations in use today, with a smaller number of 'Delgaty','Delgatty','Dalgity','Dalgaty', and 'Dalgettie', also in use.