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 [ 2 syll. dou-glas, do-ugl-as ] The boy name Douglas is pronounced DAHGLahS KEY. Douglas is of Scottish origin. It is used mainly in English and Scottish. The name Douglas means 'dark river'. From dubh which means 'dark, black' ; glais which means 'water, river'. The first name is from the prominent Scottish surname Dùbhghlas, which is derived from a river name in the southern uplands of Scotland where the clan resided. The clan, whose legend dated from the 8th century, acquired the earldoms of Douglas, Angus and Morton, and many of their members, both male and female, have been named Douglas since the 16th century. The name became an exclusively masculine name from the 17th century, and it was later taken up by English speakers in the 19th century. The name is known from the Douglas fir, a coniferous tree named after the botanist David Douglas (1798-1834) who brought its seeds from the US to Scotland. Forms of Douglas include Dugald (Scottish and English) and Dùbhghlas (Scottish). The short forms Doug (English and Scottish) and Dug (Scottish), the pet forms Dougie (Scottish), Duggie (Scottish), and Duggy (Scottish), and the spelling variant Douglass (English) are other forms of the name. Douglas is an all-time favorite. At present it is still rather popular as a baby boy name, but not to the degree it was before. At the peak of its usage in 1942, 0.797% of baby boys were named Douglas. It had a ranking of #23 then. The baby name has suffered a marked decline in popularity since then, and is of only modest use today. In 2008, it ranked at #424 with a usage of 0.032%, but it was nevertheless the most popular out of all boy names in its family. A baby name that sounds like Douglas is Douglass (English). Details of famous persons named Douglas: KEY: Pronunciation for Douglas: D as in "dee (D.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; G as in "green (G.R.IY.N)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)"   |
