Duibh Dhiorma first appears in the recorded Irish monastery annals (later referred to as
The Four Masters) for the year 1043 A.D., when a chieftain of the clan died. The monastery genealogies of the Northern Ui Neill Irish clans suggest the personal name and clan existed much further back into the first millennium as we trace the paternal line Y chromosome DNA to 5th century High King of Ireland, Niall Noigiallach. His son Eoghain (Owen), was the male progenitor of the large interrelated group of ruling clans of Ulster known as the Cenel Eoghain or Race of Owen, which included the clan of Duibhdhiorma.
Traditional genealogy of O'Duibhdhiorma (simplified version) showing descent from Prince Eoghain of the Northern Ui Neill. Y chromosome DNA test results of several DeArmond surname variant men compared with surnames from other clans of the Northern Ui Neill and Cenel Eoghain, confirm the essence of the genealogies.
Referring to the image at beginning of the post, the Old Irish Seanchlo font or script was a highly stylized Irish monastery adaptation of the Roman alphabet. The dots or sometimes small circles indicate the consonant is spoken with a lenition or aspiration (softened exhale) which changes the phonetic sound recognition differently than the usual phonetic rendering of the consonant. Because English alphabet script does not allow for the dotted consonant, the accepted manner became to place a letter h after the consonant that is meant to be lenited.
A dotted letter "b" becomes a short v and the dotted letter "d" becomes a short y. This produces "Doove Yiorma". When the two words were spoken together as a surname, there was an elision or dropping of the "ve" and the pronunciation becomes "Doo-Year-ma". Dooyearma is how the early Anglo/Irish recording officials first transliterated or Anglicized Duibhdhiorma. On occasion "Dooyiorma" or even "Dughierma" spellings were used. The pronunciations were all similar.
Gaelic Duibh is an intensive adjective meaning
very black (hair color). Dubh with the letter "i" missing, meaning merely dark hair and is commonly found in many Irish and Scottish Gaelic surnames such as in Dugh-again or Dugan. D(h)iorma means a member of an armed group of men.
Properly speaking, Ua Duibhdhiorma is the surname of an individual male descendant or clan member. Although only occasionally found, Ui Duibhdhiormaigh is the name of the clan itself. The patronymic prefix Ua is pronounced O' as in O'Keefe. Ui is the patronymic of a clan or clan group as in Ui Neill, pronounced "Eee Neal". Ua has long since fallen out of use in favor of the Anglicized O'. Ui is still used for larger clan groups. A single clan or sept is generally referred to today by the singular manner such as O'Duibhdhiorma. The older genealogies translated from Seanchlo Gaelic into English often don't show that a consonant is lenited. Therefore you will find Duv Dirma, which is actually Duibh Dhiorma.
In various other posts of my blog, I detail how O'Duibhdhiorma over time became DeArmond, McDermott, DeYarman and an untold number of other variants.
