Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE ALISONS.
CHAPTER I.
Various Theories.—True Origin of the Name of the Scotch
Allisons.— Its Orthography.—Most Frequent Scottish Names.
Old Divisions of Scotland and England.—Thomas Carlyle's
Statement,
ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF ALLISON.
Robert Ferguson, M. P., F. S. A., and F. S. A. Scotland,
in his "Surnames as a Science," London: 1883, pp. 204-
206, is Women's Names, "Alice, Alicia, Eliza, Adeliza, Alison.
Alice properly a man's name, and Eliza its proper feminine."
He derives these names from Anglo-Saxon Adelgis (masculine)
and Adelgisa (feminine), whence come Aliza, Eliza,
but not Eizabeth (the Latin form), the Hebrew form being
Elischeba.
He cites for this the Liher Vitce of Durham, "in which
we can trace the changes that have taken place in Adelgisa
since the first noble lady of that name laid her gift upon the
altar. First we find it contracted into Adeliza, and then,
from about the twelfth century, into Aaliza and Aliza, the
latter name being henceforward rather a common one. The
former of these two contracted forms, Adeliza, though not a
name in common use, is one still given to the daughters of
certain of our noble families ; the latter form, Aliza, I take
to be the origin of our Eliza. (The initial vowel is of no
account, the ancient name beginning indifferently with A or
E, and Alice in some families appearing as Ellice)."
"About the beginning of the fifteenth century another
Christian name for women, Alison, begins to make its appearance
in the Liber Vitce. This name, however, I take to be
from an entirely different origin. There is an old Frankish
woman's name, Alesinda, Elesind, Alesint, of the eighth cen-
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