Duncan

English

Alternative forms

• (surname): Donkin

Etymology

• As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, from Donnchadh, a name composed of donn (“brown”) + cath (“battle”). Also spelled as Donagh and Donaghue, Donahue.
• Also as an Irish surname, Anglicized from ó Duinnchinn, from donn (“brown”) + ceann (“head”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌŋkən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋkən

Proper noun

Duncan (countable and uncountable, plural Duncans)

1. A male given name from Scottish Gaelic anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Donnchadh; the name of two early saints and of two kings of Scotland.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     For them the gracious Duncan I have murder'd

   • 1816, Walter Scott, Old Mortality, Samuel H. Parker, published 1836, page 232:

     "Country?" replied Cuddie; "ou, the country's weel eneugh, and it werena that dour deevil, Calver'se, ( they ca' him Dundee now) that's stirring about yet in the Highlands, they say, with a' the Donalds, and Duncans, and Dugalds, that ever wore bottomless breeks, driving about wi' him, to set things asteer again, - - -

   • 2011, Sophie Hannah, Lasting Damage, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, pages 77–78:

     His full name is Benji Duncan Geoffrey Rigby-Monk. 'You're joking,' Kit said, when I first told him. 'Benji? Not even Benjamin?' Duncan and Geoffrey are his two granddads'names ― both unglamorous and old-dufferish, in Kit's view, and not worth inflicting on a new generation ― and Rigby-Monk is a fusion of Fran's surname and Anton's.

2. A Scottish surname originating as a patronymic.
3. A surname from Irish, a variant of Dinkin.
4. An Irish surname, a variant of Donegan.
5. An Irish surname, a variant of Dunican.
6. An Irish surname, adopted as an anglicization of Ó Donnchadha (whence Donoghue).
7. A locality in South Australia, Australia; named for politician John Duncan.
8. A city in British Columbia, Canada; named for early settler William Chalmers Duncan.
9. A locale in the United States.
   1. A city, the county seat of Stephens County, Oklahoma; named for early settler William Duncan.
   2. A town in South Carolina; named for landowner Leroy Duncan.
   3. A town in Arizona; named for copper businessman Duncan Smith.
   4. A town in Mississippi.
   5. A village in Nebraska; named for early resident Wood B. Duncan.
   6. A census-designated place in Iowa.
   7. An unincorporated community in Indiana.
   8. An unincorporated community in Casey County, Kentucky.
   9. An unincorporated community in Mercer County, Kentucky.
   10. An unincorporated community in Missouri.
   11. An unincorporated community in North Carolina.
   12. Four townships, in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania, listed under Duncan Township.
10. A river in British Columbia, Canada; running 206 km near Mount Dawson into the Kootenay Lake; named for prospector John Duncan.
11. A short river in the Southern Alps, New Zealand.

Derived terms

• duncani
• Duncan Phyfe
• Duncanville
• IDS

Translations

given name

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鄧肯 / 邓肯 (Dèngkěn)

• Irish: Donncha, Donnchadh m
• Manx: Donaghey
• Marathi: डंकन (ḍaṅkan)
• Scottish Gaelic: Donnchadh

Anagrams

• nucDNA