Smily Surname History

Origins Available:
Ireland
Scotland
England

The ancient Dalriadan-Scottish name Smily is a nickname for a for a person noted for their smile, or happy personality. Smily is thus, a nickname surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Nicknames form a broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, and can refer directly or indirectly to one's personality, physical attributes, mannerisms, or even their habits of dress. The surname Smily comes from the Old English word, smile, which means grin. Therefore, the surname Smily would have been adopted by someone with a distinct smile, or grin.

Early Origins of the Smily family

The surname Smily was first found in Cumberland, a historic county of North West England, now known as Cumbria.

Early History of the Smily family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Smily research. Another 74 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1600, 1630, 1660, 1670, 1689, 1697, 1740, 1763, 1774, 1787, 1795, 1890 and 1968 are included under the topic Early Smily History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Smily Spelling Variations

Spelling variations were extremely common in medieval names, since scribes from that era recorded names according to sound rather than a standard set of rules. Smily has appeared in various documents spelled Smiley, Smellie, Smyly, Smyley, Smilley, Smilie and many more.

Early Notables of the Smily family

Another 48 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Smily Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Smily family to Ireland

Some of the Smily family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 163 words (12 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Smily migration to the United States +

Significant portions of the populations of both the United States and Canada are still made up of the ancestors of Dalriadan families. Some of those in Canada originally settled the United States, but went north as United Empire Loyalists in the American War of Independence. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the ancestors of many Scots on both sides of the border begin to recover their collective national heritage through Clan societies and highland games. Some of the first North American settlers carried this name or one of its variants:

Smily Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

William and James Smily, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1803
William Smily, aged 23, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1803 1

Citations +

Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)