Much like our Universe, the DeArmond surnames evolved from chaos.
As with many human cultures, the history of Ireland was often a story of one family clan in brutal deadly conflict with another for territory, cattle and slaves, or pitched battle between large brotherhoods of clans. Then in the 8th century A.D. began the long struggle to throw off the power of the Viking invaders which was achieved in the 11th century. In the 13th century the Norman conquerors of England came to the Isle and conflict ensued again with often devastating consequences for the Irish but with much cost to the British also.
The northern Province of Ulster was the last part of Ireland to be subdued. To insure subjugation of the rebellious Irish, British King James established the Plantation of Ulster about 1610 and encouraged primarily lowland Scots and northern English Borderers to resettle there. The Scots and Borderers (Reivers) were often as combative as the Irish but were also skilled in land reclamation and development.
By the start of the 17th century the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, inhabiting the eastern Inishowen Peninsula of Donegal, had long been under the rule of the O'Dohertys. In 1608, the British crushed the revolt of the Prince of Inishowen, Cahir O'Doherty. The First documented records of the British attempt to Anglicize the spelling of the Gaelic surname of Duibhdhiorma appear during this period. The most phonetically similar versions were Dooyearma, Dooyiorma or Dughierma. However, the practice of substituting the common Irish given name of Diermond (or Dermond) soon became the accepted norm. Diermond was in turn an Anglicization of Gaelic Diarmuid or Diarmait (pronounced Der-mood or Der-mit). Numerous variants of Diermond were recorded throughout Ireland ever since English became spoken there. Common spelling examples were: Dyormott, Dermond, Dermott, Dermid, Dyermitt and eventually Dearmond, Dearment, Dearmitt, etc. These surnames are found also in several other counties of Ireland during the 17th century but in most cases do not originate with clan O'Duibhdhiorma. For instance, Line G, Dearmont of Maryland and Virginia is indigenous to Munster Province in southeast Ireland.
When the Irish spoke among themselves in their native Gaelic language they always used Ua Duibhdhiorma, which phonetically sounded like O'Dooyearma or O'Dooyarma. It is apparent that over time the Anglicized Diermond/Dyermond variants and O'Duibhdhiorma Gaelic pronunciations had somewhat of a cross current spelling and speech influence upon one another. Duibhdhiorma became pronounced Dee-er-ma, Dee-ar-mah or Dee-yar-ma.
In Ulster about 1725, Ulster Scots became discontent with English Anglican Church influence in putting severe legal restrictions on their Presbyterian faith and with the ending of rent controls on tenant farming. The Scots began a 50 year long emigration from Ulster primarily to at first Pennsylvania. This left indebted landlords desperate to fill tenant farming vacancies. Law allowed them to hire native Irish who were willing to convert from Catholicism. Those Irish who converted to the Gaelic language friendly Presbyterian church became inter married with the Ulster Scots and soon joined the continuing emigration from Ulster while using an Anglicized variant of Diermond when speaking in English and Duibhdhiorma when using Gaelic.
Screenshots taken from the 1748 will of James, Line A.
In the 18th century American Colonies, the most common immigrant spelling of the surname was recorded as Dermond which was pronounced as Der-mond, although it is noteworthy that Deyermond was used by whoever inscribed the 1748 will of James (Line A). Then gradually around 1800, Dearmond became more common, still pronounced with the first syllable break following the letter "r". Anecdotal evidence indicates that the Gaelic pronunciation was still being used among many American settler families well into the 19th century. The clearest examples of this are revealed with the following U.S. census records:
The genesis of the nearly universal myth that the surname variants are of French origin began following the celebrated return tour of America by the famed Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. The meme made it's way back to the Belfast area of Ireland where a late 19th century city directory lists several imaginative pseudo French spellings. This curious ruse was pointed out by Catholic Father Patrick Woulfe in his 1906/1926 editions of "Irish names and surnames", shown below.
The religious and cultural animosity between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland continues to smolder just below the surface within certain demographic factions. This has led to descendants of the once Catholic O'Duibhdhiorma, who converted primary to the Calvinist Presbyterian faith, readily absorbing and expanding upon the myth of Calvinist French Huguenot origin for their derived surname variants, with Deyermond being the most notable.
Understanding how in America after 1825, the anglicized Dear-mxxx syllable separation became the pseudo French De-Ar-mxxx, is most likely explained by assuming the Irish Gaelic De-ar-ma or De-yar-ma verbal tradition was retained by many families well into the 19th century.
Duermit and McDermid
Interesting examples of surname variants descended from clan O'Duibhdhiorma are found among my very close Y DNA STR matches at FtDNA.com. The surnames Duermit and McDermid are absent from "DeArmond Families of America" (1954) by Roscoe C. "d'Armand" in spite of Roscoe's recognition of a wide variety of surname variants. Both test kits are matched to me by one repeat count difference (37/1).
Duermit of Ohio
The single progenitor of the American surname of Duermit, found mainly in southern Ohio, seems to have been an Irishman who immigrated to Ohio sometime in the decade following the 1840's Potato Famine. His male line descendant Y DNA STR counts are very closely matched to the mainstream O'Duibhdhiorma descendants whose immigrant ancestors from Inishowen, County Donegal, converted to the Presbyterian religion in order to fill vacant tenant farming positions throughout Ulster.
In contrast, the immigrant Duermit married a Catholic woman supposedly from Eniskillen in County Fermanagh, and he was finally laid to rest in a Catholic church cemetery. Perhaps because of his later association with Catholicism, and similarity of his name to McDermott, some of his descendants apparently believe he was from County Roscommon where the indigenous Mac Diarmada was Anglicized to McDermott. His descendant Y DNA does not match descendants of those O'Duibhdhiorma Catholic ancestors who were forcibly removed to Connaught Province in the 17th century, where Roscommon is located, and who also used McDermott and McDearmond variations. His descendant Y DNA has even far greater genetic distance from the indigenous Mac Diarmada of Roscommon. Therefore, it is more probable that he emigrated directly from County Donegal, first by way of Liverpool which was an important point of embarkation for voyage to America and where he is named on a ship's manifest near the end of the 1840s Potato Famine.
The presence of the letter "u" in the spelling of Duermit, I believe helps to support my theory that the Gaelic Duibh-dhiorma had auditory influence upon the Anglicized Diarmait variants and vice-versa. Duibh is a Gaelic intensive adjective word generally referring to black or very dark hair and is pronounced "doove". When used as a prefix to a name, the "bh" sound is dropped (elision). A vocal synthesis of the Gaelic "Du(ibh)" and Anglicized "(d)ermit" would have likely produced Duermit.
McDermid of Glasgow, Scotland
McDermid is a surname variant which is found among descendants of the clan who migrated to Scotland to find industrial and shipyard work in the early 19th century. The Gaelic patronymic "O" (grandson of) was discarded in favor of "Mc" (son of). This occurred with several other Irish surnames also, but was most notable among Duibhdhiorma descendants in the environs of Londonderry, just south of Inishowen, and in Connaught Province in central west Ireland where many Irish were forcibly removed to in the 17th century. The most commonly used surname substitutions were McDermott or McDearmond. I would surmise that many Irish dropped the "O" for discrimination reasons in favor of "Mc" because, primarily in Ulster, it was widely but erroneously assumed that "Mc" was strictly a Scottish surname prefix (ref. O'Donovan; 1861). The Gaels of the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland had discarded the "O" prefix many centuries before.
