From Where Does The Surname Originate? ^{meaning and history}

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The results of the Elliot DNA project, run between 2005 and 2015, involving nearly three hundred Elliots (Eliots, Eliotts and Elliotts), revealed conclusively that the name is of Celtic-Brythonic (Breton) origin.

In early times the name was also spelt as Aliot, although the story that all Elliots or Aliots were descended from a Sir William Aliot, knighted by William the Conqueror in 1066, is largely apocryphal. Eliots were among the thousand or so Breton mercenaries who participated in the Norman Conquest. The name is Breton, and exclusively so.

Today the name Eliot (all spellings) is still prevalent in Morbihan (Brittany), and parts of Normandy, while the alternative spelling, Aliot, is found more commonly in Loire Atlantique, which used to be part of Brittany.

The name is a French corruption of the much older Breton name, Halegoët, noted for its several variants, including Allegoët and Elegoët. The Halegoët was a densely forested area near Plouzané in Finistère. The name underwent déformation par francisation, from which few Breton names escaped. Elegoët (in English, Elligott, Ellacott and Ellicott) became Elliouët, and then Elliot. This was almost certainly due to the creation of Haute Bretagne, when tenth century Bretons moved south, among mainly French-speaking peoples. The name appears for the first time in England in Hundred Years' War muster rolls, and as members of a rising gentry, a number of Eliots achieved fame, one as an explorer commissioned by Henry VII, one as a scholar, writer and sheriff of Cambridgeshire who joined an embassy to Rome in the matter of Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and another as a justice under Henry VIII as a justice of the King's Bench.

Today the leading English Eliot is the earl of St Germans, whose ancestor, Sir John Eliot was a parliamentary rebel imprisoned by Charles I in the Tower of London, where he died.

Scottish Elliots are descended from one of more of the name, who like so many Norman, Breton and Flemish knights, were brought into Scotland, at first south of the Forth by David I (1124-53), and then north of the Forth by his grandsons, Malcolm IV (1153-65) and William I, the Lion (1165-1214). In Scotland the name was again, at first spelt as Aliot. Elias d'Aliot was enfeoffed by William I with alienated (royal) thanage lands, and given the Gaelic name d'Alyth. He continued, however, to use his Breton surname, the name by which Alyth in Angus (now Perthshire) became more commonly known, until the old Gaelic name was restored to late 18 th century maps. On all previous surviving maps held by the National Library of Scotland, the name Eliot appears, not Alyth. There is a suggestion also that an early Eliot had lands in Renfrewshire and founded Eliotstoun in the old barony of Renfrew, held by a fellow Breton, Walter fitzAlan, the first of the Stewarts. Elias's descendant, Walter d'Alyth, known more commonly as Walter d'Aliot or d'Eliot, forfeited the former thanage lands in 1306, for his attendance with the earl of Atholl at the improvised coronation of Robert the Bruce, although the evidence suggests that Walter avoided expulsion and was still in possession of them when, in preparation for his devastating raids into England, Bruce recolonized Liddesdale on the Borders with military men whom he could trust. These included the Elliots and probably their allies, the Armstrongs, Croziers and Nixons. No doubt with the prospects of booty and plunder in mind, the Elliots, probably willingly exchanged their lands in Angus for a new Border lordship, that of Redheugh. Scottish surnames were often place names, and unable to formally retain either name, Alyth or Eliot, they were assigned the name Elwald, but long persistence with the old Breton surname led to abandonment of this inappropriate old English name. The Elliots were among the most powerful and ruthless of the Border reiver clans, capable of putting hundreds of armed Elliot clansmen on horseback. (See George MacDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets). During the pacification of the Borders under James VI of Scotland and I of England, several were hanged and many others were exiled to Ireland. The Redheugh chieftain survived – just – while his Teviotdale cousins, the Eliotts of Stobs, flourished. Their successors became baronets, of Stobs, from which the line of Minto, and the earls of Minto, are descended. Until now, most of what has been written about the origins of this name is purely speculative.

Elligott, Ellacott, Ellicott, McElligott are all variants of Elliot (all spellings) a French corruption of an old Breton tribal name Halegoet or Halgoet, also spelt as Allegoet and Elegoet. Alliot, Allott, which predominate in Loire Atlantique were alternative medieval scribal preferences for Elliot. All their ancestors were in the Breton contingent of William the Conqueror's invasion army of 1066. The name is notorious among Breton historians for its many variants. Y-chromosome research now confirms this. See also the French websitewww.geopatronyme. It is almost certain that the first places of settlement were in the Devon and Cornish lands in which several Breton magnates were awarded lands for military service, principally the south-west, when Cornwall was given to the Conqueror's Breton cousin Brien, count of Brittany, and in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, where the scribal preferences Allott and Alliott are found, part of the extensive honour of Richmond with its lands in eleven counties. The English corruption Elligott and its Breton parent Elegoet, sound very much the same when they are pronounced.Recent research, and the discovery of 16th-early 18th century maps held in the National Library of Scotland, have confirmed the suspicion that the anglicised name Elwald, later Elwood and the misspelling Elwand, was accepted by or forced on the Elliots when they were transplanted from the Eliot barony of The Brae in Perthshire, to Liddesdale, Scotland by Robert the Bruce, to effect his seizure of the lordship following treason committed by its lord, William de Soules in 1320. A careful reexamination of surviving documents shows that both names existed side by side for many years, with Elwald treated only as a charter name. Documents show that just as soon as Elliot chieftains became literate and were able to sign documents unaided, they signed their names as Ellott. The 'i' was reinserted during the early 17th century. Y-Chromosome research has confirmed the Breton origin of the Elliots, and the Breton source of a number of its variant names like Elligott, Ellacott and Ellicott, d erived from the Breton variant Elegoet. Like many knights of Norman, Flemish and Breton extraction, Elias d'Alliot (var.d'Elliot or d'Eliot) was awarded the barony of The Brae near to the foot of Glen Shee by William I (the Lion, 1165-1214) probably during the 1170s, before Elias's name appeared as a witness in a charter of 1189.Ulliott has long been recognized as a variant of Elliot - a name with some seventy variants, vide G MacDonald-Fraser, 'The Steel Bonnets'. Most have not survived.