Four people in Scotland carried this surname in 1901, and one of their forebears is still cited in American law. That is an odd position for a name nobody has heard of.
The evidence for Craigdaillie is thin, and this page will say so rather than pad it out. What survives is unusually specific.
Who Was James Craigdallie?
A member of the Burgher Seceder congregation in Perth, and the lead name in a lawsuit that outlived him by two hundred years.
The congregation split over a change to the formula its members subscribed, specifically the clause on the power of the civil magistrate. Craigdallie's party claimed it had kept the founding position; the Reverend J. Aikman's party held the meeting house. The Court of Session found for Aikman, and on 16 June 1813 the House of Lords sent the case back. It returned and was affirmed in 1820.
Lord Eldon's ruling in Craigdallie v Aikman settled that when a religious society divides, its property follows whichever party held to the principles the trust was founded on. When the United States Supreme Court decided Watson v. Jones in 1871, it took the case up directly, calling it "a case bearing in some points a striking analogy to the present."
Is Craigdaillie a Place-Name?
Almost certainly, though nobody has published a proper etymology of it.
Craigdallie is a small farming locality in the Carse of Gowrie, between Kinnaird and Inchture in the flat ground north of the Tay. The first element is straightforward: Scots craig and Gaelic creag, a rock or crag, on the low-lying farmland our account of the Carse surname describes.
The second element is not settled, and anyone who tells you it is has invented it. A personal name and Gaelic dail, a haugh, are both plausible; neither is demonstrated. The direction of travel is clear: the place is old and the surname scarce, so the name moved from ground to family, as with Cairnie.
How Rare Is Craigdaillie?
Rare enough to quote the census in full. In 1901 four people in Scotland were surnamed Craigdallie, ranking the name 24,167th. The double-i spelling Craigdaillie is scarcer still and returns no census entry of its own.
Ancestry's indexes put the one recorded Craigdaillie family of 1841 in Perthshire and the Craigdallie households of that year in Midlothian: a Carse of Gowrie name with a branch in Edinburgh. Treat Craigdaillie, Craigdallie, Craigdailie and Craigdalie as one name; at these numbers a clerk's preference decides which form a family appears under. It belongs with our lesser-known Celtic surnames.
Is Craigdaillie Connected to Clan Craig?
No, and the first syllable is a trap. Craig heads dozens of unrelated Scottish place-names, and Clan Craig is its own line rather than an umbrella for them. There is no chief of the name Craigdaillie, no clan structure and no tartan recognized for it. The Carse country belonged to other families entirely, the Hays as Earls of Erroll to the west and the Kinnairds next door. A Craigdaillie was a tenant there, not a lord.
A Research Plan for a Name This Rare
Scarcity is an advantage. With a handful of bearers you can attempt what is impossible for a common name: gather every Scottish record of the surname into one family.
- Run the wildcard Craigd* on ScotlandsPeople rather than any exact spelling, then repeat with phonetic matching; our guide to that site covers both.
- Take the whole result set. Do not filter by county or date; every hit is potentially your family.
- Work the Carse of Gowrie parishes for early material, chiefly Kinnaird, Inchture, Errol and Kilspindie, plus Perth burgh.
- Expect Seceder families to be missing from the parish registers, since their births and marriages went into their own congregation's books. If a generation disappears between the 1750s and 1820s, check Secession and United Presbyterian records before assuming emigration.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Craigdaillie Name
Is Craigdaillie a Scottish surname?
Yes, and a distinctly Perthshire one. It matches a locality in the Carse of Gowrie, and the earliest identifiable bearers appear in Perth.
Craigdaillie or Craigdallie: which is correct?
Neither: no spelling was fixed before the nineteenth century. Craigdallie is commoner in the census, Craigdaillie in family and immigration records.
What does Craigdaillie mean?
The first part is craig, a rock or crag. The second is unexplained, and no published place-name study settles it. Meanings offered online are guesses.
Sources and Further Reading
- Watson v. Jones (1871) — the US Supreme Court on Craigdallie v Aikman.
- Craigdallie v Aikman, 1813 — the Perth congregation and the disputed formula.
- Joshua Getzler, "Faith, Trust and Charity" — Lord Eldon's reasoning and the 1820 affirmation.
- Craigdallie in the 1901 Scottish census — the four bearers and the rank.
- Ancestry: Craigdaillie distribution — the 1841 Perthshire household.
- Craigdallie, Perth and Kinross — the modern locality.
- ScotlandsPeople: surnames guide — wildcards and phonetic matching.
- George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland — where to check early forms.
Browse our Craigdaillie Scottish family gifts to explore the available collection.