Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : sometimes of English origin, but in County Kerry it is usually an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duinnín (see Dineen).
- English : patronymic from a variant of Dunn 2.
- Sir George Downing (1623–84), baronet, member of Parliament, and ambassador to the Netherlands in the time of both Cromwell and King Charles II, was the second graduate of the first class (1642) at Harvard College. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Emmanuel Downing of the Inner Temple and his second wife, Lucy Winthrop, sister of John Winthrop. The family emigrated to New England in 1638 and settled at Salem, MA.