Dallas

"Valley meadow" — a Scottish place name that became synonymous with American ambition

Dallas derives from the Scottish Gaelic Dal Fhais meaning valley meadow or water meadow in a valley. The Dallas family emigrated from Scotland to colonial America, and George Mifflin Dallas — Vice President under James K. Polk — gave his name to the Texas city founded in 1841. As a given name, Dallas has a distinctly American, Western character, boosted by the long-running TV soap opera Dallas which ran from 1978 to 1991. The name feels simultaneously rugged and polished, a combination that works especially well in the American South and Southwest.