Dabbs
A surname most likely from the old given name Dobb/Dob, with the spelling shaped by regional pronunciation.
The #7,380 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,367 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical clue is that Dabbs was treated by some surname writers as a spoken or regional form of Dobbs, and Dobbs itself is usually explained as a pet form of Robert through Dob. Older writers also connected Dabbs with a short form of David, but that looks less likely than the Dobb/Dob line. A minority of sources proposed a Norman-French or locative-looking interpretation, but those suggestions are much weaker and seem to reflect old conjecture rather than a settled derivation.
History
The name appears in English records as a variant spelling rather than a separate major surname family, and its distribution fits the kind of sound-shifted form found in northern and Midland English speech. In later dictionaries it is repeatedly cross-referenced under Dobbs, Dadds, and related forms. Modern bearers are concentrated in English-speaking countries, especially the United States and Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname dictionary explicitly grouped Dabbs with a cluster of names thought to arise from hurried or colloquial pronunciation, which is a good reminder that spellings often changed by ear before they were standardized.
From the historical record
“all the result of quick or hurried pronunciation. O and a. Generally North Country variations : cf. Dabbs for Dobbs, Dadd and Dadson for Dodd and Dodson ; cf. also the many local Rattan Raws in the North with Southern Rotton Row. Double diminutives in el-ot or el-et. These are found in such dictionary words as…”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances