Gunn
A surname that can come from an old personal name built on the element for “war” or from the shortened name Gawen in some families.
The #1,525 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,125 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Gunn is usually explained as coming from an old personal name. In one older line of scholarship, it is treated as a shortened form of Germanic names such as Gundebert or Gundbald, where the first element meant “war” or “battle.” In Scottish and northern English use, it was also sometimes taken as a short form of Gawen/Gavin, so the same surname may have more than one origin.
History
The name is well established in Scotland and northern England, where old Norse and medieval Germanic naming traditions overlapped. It also appears in place-names and as part of patronymic forms like Gunnison/Gunson in older records. Because different families could have adopted it from different given names, the surname is not always from a single source.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is common enough in Scandinavian-looking medieval name material that some scholars linked it directly to the old battle element gunn- found in Norse personal names.
From the historical record
“GUMMERSALL. See Gomersal. GUNN. GUN. An ancient personal name, or rather a contraction of one, such as Gundebert, Gundric, or Guudbald. GUT 141 GYP”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom