This unusual and interesting name is a dialectual variant of a name of German origin, 'Dung'. This is either a topographical name for someone who lived on a piece of raised dry land in marshy surroundings, or a locational name from any of the various places named with the dialect term for such a patch of land. Alternatively this name is believed to be a metonymic form of Duncan or Dunkane and derived from the Gaelic, 'Domchad', or the pre 10th Century, meaning 'brown Warrior'. The name was prominent in the late 17th Century and 18th Century, George Montague Dunk being Earl of Halifax and founder of Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1749. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Willelmus Dunecan, (witness), which was dated circa 1135, The land of Rosin Charter, during the reign of King David 1 of Scotland, 1124 - 1135. 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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