Frequency: (490)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Irish: from a mistranslation of Gaelic Ó Dubháin ‘descendant of Dubhán’, a byname from a diminutive of dubh ‘black’ (see Devine). This was confused with the Gaelic word dubhán ‘kidney’, which is in fact a derivative of dubh ‘black’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
