This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Dunning.' Dunnig and Dunnigs (i.e. Dunning) occur as personal names in the Hundred Rolls, 1273; compare Brovming and Harding. Bruning is frequently found for Browning.

John Dounynne, Somerset 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Tonn Dunnyng, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

Johannes Dunnyng, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Alicia Downyng, 1379: ibid.

Johannes Downnyng, 1379: ibid.

Hervey Dunning, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard Duning, Oxfordshire, .ibid.

John Dunning, or Downing, sheriff of Norwich, 1432: History of Norfolk.

1768. Married — John Dunning and Martha Cole: St. George, Hanover Square.

(Celtic) 1 Of Dark-Brown Com­plexion [Irish Dunin—dun(n, don(n + the diminutive suff. -ín] 2 Dweller at the Little Hill or Hill- Fort [Gaelic and Irish dún + the diminutive suff. -án or -ín] (English) Dunn(a)’s Son [Anglo-SaxonDun(n)ing —dun(n, dark brown + the son suff. -ing]

(Scottish, Irish) One who came from Dunning (little hill or fort), in Perthshire; the little brown-haired man; grandson of little Donn (brown).

This common surname is doubtless local, but I cannot ascertain the place.

Dunning, proprietor of Latham, co. Chester, and ancestor of the family of Lathom, or Latham, of that place, was contemporary with the making of Domesday Book. Whether he was a continued possessor, of the Saxon race, or a Norman grantee, is, Dr. Ormerod thinks, doubtful. His son was called Siward Fitz-Dunning. Miscellanea Palatina, p. CO. The contemporary lord of Kingsley, co. Chester, also bore the personal name of Dunning, as did several other persons in Norman times.

Local: from the village of Dunning in Perthshire. The name signifies dark offspring, from dun, black, and ing, a termination denoting children.

The brown offspring, from the Saxon Dunn, brown, and the termination ing, which, among the Saxons, signified offspring, as White—ing, the fair offspring, Cuth—ing, the son of Cuth. Dunning has retained its original orthography since the days of the Saxons.

A patronymic of the name Dunn; or the last syllable may be ing, a meadow.

A location name in Perth.

The present home of the Devonshire Dunnings is in Okehampton. John Dunning, the first Lord Ashburton, took his title from his native town, where he was born in 1731, the sou of an attorney (W. A.).

In the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., a Dorset family of Dunning held land in Brockhampton, Buckland; the Dunnings of Beaminster in the last century owned Chaple Marsh farm; Henry Dunning, M. D., of Beaminster, died in 1762 (H.). The Dunnings are also established in Devon, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire.

The Downings of Speckshall in the 17th century were a branch of the very ancient Essex family of the name, a member of which was made a baronet in 1663, whilst another was founder of Downing College, Cambridge (P.). The Downings have their home now in Ipswich and its neighbourhood. In South Elmham church there is, or was, a monument to Dorcas Downinge, bearing the date of 1638 (S.).

Dunning is another Anglo - Saxon clan name; and Dunnington, a Warwickshire hamlet, was probably the home of the clan in this county (K.). The name was well represented in Cambridgeshire in the reign of Edward I. (H. R.).

The Dunnings of Yorkshire possess the name of an Anglo - Saxon clan, which may have had its home at Dunningley in this county.