Dunbar
A Scottish place surname meaning “from Dunbar,” the town whose name refers to a fort or castle on a height.
The #1,335 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,693 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dunbar is a habitational surname taken from the town of Dunbar in Haddingtonshire, Scotland. The place-name is traditionally explained from Gaelic elements meaning something like “fort” or “castle” plus a word for a height, hill, or summit, reflecting the town’s rocky position above the sea. In other words, the name points to a fortified place on high ground.
History
The surname is recorded early in Scotland and is strongly associated with the historic earls of Dunbar, who held the district in medieval times. As a family name, it spread from the Scottish Borders into wider Britain and later to North America and other English-speaking countries. Some older writers connected the noble line with ancient Northumbrian ancestry, but that is more genealogical history than surname etymology.
Origin
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Fun fact
The surname comes from a town name that likely described the landscape itself: a fort or castle standing on a prominent rock above the sea.
From the historical record
“or castle. DUNBAR. Local. From the town of Dunbar, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth, Scotland. Dundbar, Gaelic, signifies the castle, town, or fort on the height or summit. The town was so called from its situation on the rock which at this place projects into the sea. DUSTCAK (Gaelic.) A powerful chieftain, From…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names