Where the Dunn name comes from

Dunn is a surname of English and Scottish origin, and it grew from several separate roots. The most common is the Middle English word dunn, meaning dark-coloured, which began as a nickname for someone with dark hair. Old English had the same word, dunn, for dark or dim, and Dunn appears as a male given name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

A second line is a place name: Dun in Angus, Scotland, takes its name from the Scottish Gaelic dùn, meaning a fort, and people from there carried it as a surname. In Ireland, Dunn is a shortened, anglicized form of Ó Duinn, meaning descendant of Donn. Donn was a byname from the word donn, meaning brown or brown-haired, and Dunne and Doyne are alternative spellings of the surname. The 2010 United States Census counted 141,427 people named Dunn, making it the 197th most common surname in the country.