Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch : patronymic from a short form of Daniel, or from a short form of a Germanic personal name with the first element Dein- (Dutch thegna ‘man’, ‘serving man’, ‘thane’, or ‘fighting man’).
- In some cases, probably an altered spelling of the Irish surname Dennan, an Americanized form of Ó Doineannaigh ‘descendant of Doineannaoh’, a byname from doineannach ‘tempestuous’.