This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Does anybody know the meaning of my surname..?
in reply to a message by Deane
DeaneIrish: in County Donegal this is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Deagánaigh ‘son of the deacon’ (see Deacon); in County Tipperary it can be from Gaelic Ó Déaghain ‘descendant of the deacon’. In other cases the surname is of English origin (see Dean 1). English: variant of Dean 1.Dean
English: topographic name from Middle English dene ‘valley’ (Old English denu), or a habitational name from any of several places in various parts of England named Dean, Deane, or Deen from this word. In Scotland this is a habitational name from Den in Aberdeenshire or Dean in Ayrshire.
English: occupational name for the servant of a dean or nickname for someone thought to resemble a dean. A dean was an ecclesiastical official who was the head of a chapter of canons in a cathedral. The Middle English word deen is a borrowing of Old French d(e)ien, from Latin decanus (originally a leader of ten men, from decem ‘ten’), and thus is a cognate of Deacon.
Irish: variant of Deane.
Italian: occupational name cognate with 2, from Venetian dean ‘dean’, a dialect form of degan, from degano (Italian decano).
From:http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?&fid=10&fn=&ln=Deane
vote up1vote down

Replies

Deacon
English: occupational name for a deacon, or perhaps more probably for his servant. In Middle English two forms coalesced: deakne, from Old English, and diacne, from Old French. Both are ultimately from Late Latin diaconus, from Greek diakonos ‘servant’.
Irish: when not of English origin; it was taken to Ireland in the 17th century, it may be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deocáin ‘descendant of Deocán’, a personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning.
vote up1vote down