Dowle

Anglo-Saxon Celtic English Irish Literary Scottish

Dweller by the dark stream. Dwells by the dark stream. Dark water. In the seventeenth century, this name was as popular for girls as for boys. Dark stranger. A literary name from Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Part 1, where it belongs to archibald, The Earl of Douglas. From the Gaelic 'dubhglas' meaning dark water, dark stream, or from the dark river. The Scottish Douglas clan had two historical branches: (Black Douglases and Red Douglases.) The lords of these clans figure in Sir Walter Scott's novels.