The name Terregles, recorded as Travereglis in 1359,[1] is from Cumbric *trev-ïr-eglẹ:s.[2] *Trev refers to a settlement[3] and *eglẹ:s is a borrowing of Latin ecclesia, 'church building'.

[2] The parish contains the ruins of Lincluden Collegiate Church and the site of Terregles House, once the seat of William Maxwell, last Earl of Nithsdale.

The part of the parish in the burgh was therefore transferred in 1929 from Kirkcudbrightshire to Dumfriesshire.

[5][6] The parish of Terregles therefore straddled the two counties from 1929 until further local government reform in 1975 abolished the administrative counties, and both parts of the parish became part of the Nithsdale district in the Dumfries and Galloway region.

[7] The whole parish has therefore been included in the Dumfries lieutenancy area since 1975.