This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Durand,' or 'Durant.' 'Durand, Hampshire': Domesday, v. Durrans.

John fil. Doraunt de Moreby, 5 Edward II: Freemen of York.

Roger fil. Durandi, temp. 1230: Memorials of the Church of Ss. Peter and Wilfrid, Ripon.

Durand le Bonjohan, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Henry fil. Durant, ibid.

Durant le Cordwaner, 1295. Writs of Parliament.

Ivo Duraunt, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Willelmus Durant, matras maker, 1379: Poll Tax of Howdenshire.

Johannes Dorand, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Hugo Doraunt, 1379: ibid.

1589. Married — Philip Durrant and Elizabeth Goodwyn: St. James, Clerkenwell.

(Anglo-French-Latin) Enduring, Lasting [Latin durans, durantis] The form Durand occurs in Domesday.

“Lasting in the Fight” in Old French.

(Italian) Descendant of Durand (lasting).

This, as a Christian name, is pretty frequently found in Domesday. Besides Durandus Vicecomes, who held a barony in four different counties, two others, Durandus tonsor (the barber) and Durandus carpentarius (the carpenter), both held in capite: and Durandus prepositus, Durandus canonicus S. Pauli, &c., were under-tenants.

I think it is only with the first named, Durandus the Viscount, that we need here concern ourselves. He was brother of Roger de Pistres, who had preceded him in the office of sheriff. “From the cartulary of St. Peter’s, Gloucester, we learn that the brothers Roger and Durand bore the name of De Pistres, so they must have come from that now rural village of Pistres which nestles amid the trees on the banks of the Seine, some miles above Rouen, at the foot of the Cote des Deux Amants, so well known, even in those days, for its romantic legend. At this obscure place the Carlovingian kings had had a palace, a converted Gallic Roman villa, where ecclesiastical councils were held more than once. The brothers had evidently come into the West with William Fitz-Osbern.”—A. S. Ellis. Roger had died before 1072, leaving his son Walter under age; and the shrievalty of Gloucester, “evidently granted to him, as in the case of Edward of Salisbury, with certain conditions as to a minority occurring,” passed to his brother. Durand held it as a life-tenant; and Walter only succeeded to it at his death, 1101. He left no posterity. “It is particularly interesting to find him in possession of Caldecot in Monmouthshire, in 1086. He, or Roger, in all probability at the instance of Earl William, had laid the foundations of the castle there, which together with the office of hereditary Lord High Constable of England, was to be held for so many generations by the great family of Bohun, as descendants of Roger. The dignity of High Constable evidently grew out of the constableship of Gloucester, which Walter held, if not his father, and uncle.”—Ibid.

Durant, as a surname, is subsequently to be found in almost every county in England. In the Hundred Rolls of Edward I. it is abundantly represented, chiefly in Norfolk, Lincoln, Devon and Kent; and at about the same date, Sir Walter Durant was Bailiff of Ashdown Forest, Sussex. From him descended the Durants of Yarnton, in Oxfordshire. Richard Durant, a land-owner in Somerset, was knight of the shire for Middlesex in 1316: and Robert Durant was pardoned as an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster in 1316. (Palgrave’s Pari. Writs.) John Durant, temp. Elizabeth, held Cottesmore in Rutland of the Queen by fealty and the rent of one pair of spurs: “they had,” says the county historian, “been a long time seated here: this ancient and honourable name is now quite worn out in Rutland.” Durant of Durant Hall, in Derbyshire, became extinct, according to Lysons, about 1600; but the existing baronets of this name claim descent from a cadet of this house, who settled at Scottowe, their present seat in Norfolk, at the beginning of that century.

An ancient personal name, in Latin Durandus, under which form it occurs in Domesday. An early Norman proprietor of this name founded Duranville (called in charters Durandi villa) near Bernai, in or before the eleventh century. The name of the immortal author of the Inferno was by baptism Durante-afterwards shortened by his familiar friends into Dante.

From the Latin name Durandus, enduring, strong, inured to hardships, from duro, to harden, to inure to hardships, to make strong.

Geoffry, Roger, Henry Durant, &c., of Normandy, 1180-95, Aceline, Ralph, Richard, Robert D., 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Everand D. of England, 1189 (Rot. Pip.); Roger, Robert D. in England, 1198 (Rotuli Curiae Regis).

Durant: not a surname, but a personal name, that occurs frequently in Domesday.

Durrant has been for ages a Norfolk name. In the reign of Henry VI., the Durants or Duraunts held Hall Place Manor in South Lynn, and the name is still in Lynn. A Norwich family of Durrant was buried in St. Bennet's church in that city between 1684 and 1706; and there were marbles in Scothowe church to another family of Durrant bearing dates between 1697 and 1723 (Bl.). This is an ancient pre - Domesday name (L.), though according to Ferguson it came with the Normans. It was represented by Durant and Duraunt in this county, as well as in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Bucks, Kent, and Oxfordshire, in the time of Edward I. (H. R.). It also occurs now in Suffolk, Sussex, Bucks, and Dorset.

The principal home of the Durrants in the past was in the eastern counties, and further reference to the name will be found under "Norfolk." The name was represented in the adjacent county of Kent in the 13th century (H. R.). Three mayors of Hastings, Sussex, in the 16th century, bore this name (M.).