Dabney
An English surname that likely developed as a French place-name surname, ultimately from Aubigny/Aubigné, with the French prefix d' absorbed into the name.
The #4,793 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,858 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dabney is generally explained as a reduced or anglicized form of French d'Aubigny or d'Aubigné, meaning someone from a place called Aubigny/Aubigné. The historical sources treat it as a local or territorial surname, with the French preposition d' eventually fused into the name. In older spellings and related forms, the same surname appears as Daubeney or Daubeny.
History
Medieval bearers of the surname used forms such as Daubeney, which later simplified in English to Dabney. The name is documented in English surname tradition as one of several French-origin surnames that lost their initial preposition after settlement in England. It is now established in the United States as well, where it is relatively uncommon but long in use.
Origin
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Fun fact
Several historical surname dictionaries cite Dabney as a classic example of a French d'-surname whose preposition became part of the English family name.
From the historical record
“I think, a trivial or nurse-name of David. DABNEY. a corruption of D'Aubigne. DACE. Not so likely from the fish so called as from some continental locality named Ace or Aes with the prefix D'. DACRE. Early genealogists pretend that this name was borrowed during the Crusades from Acre in Palestine, (quasi DAcre). "…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom