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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Dutch : patronymic from a short form of Daniel, or from a short form of a Germanic personal name with the first element Dein- (Dutch thegna ‘man’, ‘serving man’, ‘thane’, or ‘fighting man’).
  • In some cases, probably an altered spelling of the Irish surname Dennan, an Americanized form of Ó Doineannaigh ‘descendant of Doineannaoh’, a byname from doineannach ‘tempestuous’.

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