This unusual name is an English diminutive form of the personal name Andrew, which does not appear to have been used in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Andreas", the orignal Greek form and a derivative of "Andreios", meaning "manly", from "aner", "andros", man, male. Although the variant forms "Dand", "Dandie" and "Dandy" are usually thought of as Scottish, the earliest recordings are all from English locations, the earliest Scottish instance being that of Andrew Kerr, son of the eighth Lord of Ferniehurst, who was known as "Dand Kerr" and died in 1499. The marriage of Esbell Dand and John Bukler was recorded at St. Oswald's in Durham on the 17th June 1554. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Dande, which was dated 1279, in the Huntingdonshire Hundred Rolls, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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