Damian
A surname from the personal name Damian, ultimately tied to the Greek name of a saint and early Christian tradition.
The #4,980 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,806 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Damian is a surname taken from the given name Damian, Latin Damianus, which comes from Greek Damianos. The name is traditionally linked with the Greek verb damazein, meaning “to tame” or “to subdue,” so the old sense is roughly “the tamer” or “the one who subdues.” In surname use, it usually began as a family name formed from an ancestor’s personal name rather than from a place or occupation.
History
The name spread through Christian Europe because of Saint Damian, honored together with Saint Cosmas in the early church. As a surname, it appears in several European naming traditions and is found in English-language records mainly through immigration and later anglicization. It remains more common as a given name than as a surname, but it survives in many countries.
Origin
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Variant spellings
Fun fact
Cosmas and Damian are one of the best-known saintly pairs in Christian tradition, which helped keep the name Damian in use across Europe.
From the historical record
“( British Ecclesiastics. ) Albanus, St. Alban, Laurentius, Justus, Damian, Cuthbert, Dunstan, Oddo (Odo), Anselm, Theobald, Patrick, Columba, Bridget, Hilda, Dagan, Chad, Wilfrid, Langton, Thomas A- 'Becket, Thomas Cranmer, - Atterbury, Seabury, Warburton, Tillotson, Prideaux, - Richard Baxter, John Knox, Isaac…”
— A Grammar of American Surnames