DEANE members around the world

DEANE Family History

This ancient name is chiefly of Anglo-Saxon origin, derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "denu", valley, in Middle English "dene". The surname from this source may be either locational or topographical in origin; if the former, it derives from any one of the places named with this term, in, for example, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire and Sussex. Most of these places are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Dene". As a topographical surname, Dean(e) was used to denote esidence in or near a valley, as in the following early examples of the name: William de la Dena (1193, Surrey); Simon in la Dene (1271, Somerset); and William atte Dene (1296, Sussex)...