Family name origins & meanings
- Irish (Ulster) : adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Duibhne ‘descendant of Dubhne’, a personal name meaning ‘ill-going’, ‘disagreeable’. Compare Deeney. Peoples is a pseudo-translation based on the phonetic resemblance of the Gaelic name to Gaelic daoine ‘people’.
- English : patronymic from a pet form (in -el) of the Old French personal name Pepis, oblique case Pepin (see Pepin).