According to the City of Dallas, the origin of the name Dallas is a mystery, despite claims to the contrary. The most probable claim is that George Mifflin Dallas (Who was named after the village of Dallas, Scotland), a Vice President of the United States, was the person after whom Dallas was named. Bryan stated only that it was named after my friend Dallas. Another idea, was that the name was influenced from a small town in Pennsylvania, named "Dallas" [10]
Other leading candidates for Dallas's eponym are:
1. Commodore Alexander James Dallas, brother of George Mifflin Dallas, stationed in the Gulf of Mexico;
2. Walter R. Dallas, who fought at San Jacinto;
3. James L. Dallas, Walter's brother and a Texas Ranger;
4. Joseph Dallas of Arkansas, who lived in the Cedar Springs area in 1843, and moved from Washington County (near Bryan's land holdings in Crawford County) to the Dallas area a few years after Bryan's arrival. This possibility has much support, in that founder John Neely Bryan stated that he had named the town after "his friend," and he was indeed friends with Joseph Dallas at the time.[11]
A notable fact is that, while the namesake of the city of Dallas is not known for certain, the namesake of the county of Dallas is clear, as noted in the transcripts of the Texas legislature. Dallas County was named after Vice-President George Mifflin Dallas, leading to the intriguing possibility that the county seat was named for a different person than the county of the same name