Dendon - Name

Recorded as Denden, Dendon, Dundan, Dunden, Dundin and Dundon, this is an English locational surname. It is locational and probably from the village of Dundon in the county of Somerset. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names this derives its name from the Olde English pre 7th century 'denu-dun' meaning the valley by (or between) the hills. The place itself is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Dondene' and later in the tax rolls known as the 'Fees' of the year 1234 as Dunden. Locational surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homesteads to move somewhere else. This is certainly so in this case, the name not being recorded at all in Somerset before the 20th century. However it is well recorded in the city of London from the 18th century, and examples from this source include Peter Dendon at St Leonards Shoreditch on September 10th 1780, and Ann Dundon who married Edward Hardcastle at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on October 30th 1815.