A male name. Latin Dionysius, Greek Διονύσιος, ‘of Dionysos’; the name of the Areopagite converted by St Paul at Athens (Acts xvii. 34), and of several saints, notably the apostle of the Gauls who was martyred near Paris in 272, and as St Denys became the patron saint of France. There are 41 churches dedicated to him in England where the name was introduced about the end of the 12th C and gave rise to the surnames Denis, Deniss, Dennis, Denniss, Denison, Dennison, Denny, Dennett, Tennyson; it occurs in the 15th C (Deenys, Deenes Scorchebefe). It still survived at the beginning of the 17th C, after which it went out of common use for a couple of centuries to be revived at the beginning of the 20th C. In Ireland, however, it has been used for some centuries as a substitute for the native Donnchadh.

Dionisius Curia Regis Rolls 1200, 1221. Dyonisius Curia Regis Rolls 1221. Denes Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

DENNIS. Ultimately from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry. ‘Denis is a very frequent Irish name, as a substitute for Donogh; and, to judge by the number of the surnames, Dennis, Dennison, and Tennyson or Tenison, it would seem to have been more common in England than at present,’ Yonge.

Or DENNIS. Corrupted from the name Dionysius, q. v. According to the Annals of Ireland the old Irish name Donnoch or Donnchu has been sometimes Anglicised to Denis.

A Greek name, meaning: Of Dionysius.