Frequency: (104)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Norwegian: habitational name from a farm so named, from dyr ‘deer’, ‘elk’, ‘moose’ + Old Norse dalr ‘valley’.
GIVEN NAME Scandinavian 7%. Nels (2).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
