Question

Where did the DeLisle's originate from, and do all DeLisle's have a common ancestor?

Answer 1

Surnames for the majority of English began to stick in the 1300s. The younger sons of the landed gentry and aristocracy derived their names from the land they were born with (the eldest sons took their family names from Normandy) or from lands they were granted, so we can assume that all the de Lisles took their name from their ancestral lands. Originally, in Latin, the name was de Insula (from the island, and there have been several theories as to where ' the island' was. One popular theory is that it was the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, but others say the Isle of Coveny, also in Cambridgeshire. The family held land in both places.http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cp/lisleofrougemont.shtml discusses the origins of the  name and some mistakes that have been  made in tracing their origins.

Answer 2

Delisle Name Meaning

 

English (De Lisle) and French: topographic and habitational name (see Lyle).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

This link shows name derivatives on Wikitree:

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Surname&s=LISLE&order=dobup

Answer 3

The various English families called del Isle or de Lisle left many descendants called Lisle, Lyle, Lyell, Lillley etc, but the de was generally dropped.

Unless you can find an English branch that retained the de, you might have to look in a different direction for the origins of a modern DeLisle family.  It could be a non-English name Anglicized in the USA.

Answer 4

One of the English channel islands called Guernsey is where all my deLisle ancestors came from.  https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Guernsey_Genealogy