Ó Dunn Surname

Heraldry

Dunne Dunn O'Doinn O'Duinn (Chiefs of Hy Regain in the Queen's County. A very ancient sept in Province Leinster of the same race as O'Conor Failghe and O'Dempsey).

 Arms: Azure an eagle displayed Or. Crest: In front of a holly bush proper a lizard passant Or. Motto: Mullach Abú - The (people of the) Hill forever or victory from the hills.

Various branches of the family bore this same coat of arms with minor differences.

Origin of the Surname: 
 
Source: Irish Families, Edward MacLysaght, Irish Academic Press, 1991, page 81.

Dunn is a Scottish and Irish name from the Gaelic donn = dark, brown... a nickname for the man with dark hair or a dark complexion. It is also derived as an English nickname with the same meaning, from Old English dunn = dark-colored. Occasionally, it is found as a Scottish place name from Dun the former county of Angus, from Gaelic dun = fort. Variations are Dun, Dunne, Don, Donne, Donn . Dwynn is a Welsh cognate.

O'Dunn, Dunn

"In Irish O Duinn or O Doinn (doinn is gentitive case of the adjective donn - brown) it is more often written Dunne than Dunn in English. The form O'Doyne, common in the seventeenth century, is now almost obsolete. In fact, of 364 births registered for them in a given year, 313 had the final E and only 51 were Dunn. From this it can be estimated that the total number of people so called in Ireland today is approximately 15,000, giving them twenty-seventh place in the list of commonest surnames in Ireland. This sept originiated in Co. Leix (Queen's County) and formed one of the principal families of Leinster, their chief being lords of Iregan in that county.

 The sept is one of those specially mentioned in the mid-sixteenth century official orders as hostile and dangerous to the English interest. It is in that part of the country that Dunnes are, appropriately, now to be found in greatest numbers, though they have spread far and wide. Nearly all those who spell the name Dunn came from Ulster. This is a name to which the practice during the present century of resuming the discarded prefixes Mac and O does not apply -- the form O'Dunn or O'Dunne is seldom if ever seen today. 

At least one of the name is to be found in the gallery of famous Irishmen, viz., Gillananaomh O Duinn (1102-1160), the historian and poet. One was killed at the battle of Aughrim in 1691. Another very active Jacobite was James O'Dunne (c. 1700-1758), Bishop of Ossory, most of whose life was spent in France, in the service of which country several of his relatives distinguished themselves as diplomatists and soldiers. In modern times Charles Dunn (1799-1872), wa a notable judge in the U.S.A. and Col. Humphrey O'Dunne was famous for his bravery in the attach on Savannah in 1774. The Irish-American author Finlay Peter Dunn, has been noticed in the article on Dooley (q.v.). Sir Patrick Dun (1642-1713), five times President of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland, and Irish M.P., whose memory is perpetuated in Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Dublin, was of a Scottish family."

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