Doane
An English and American surname most often treated as a local name meaning someone who lived on a down or hillside.
The #5,356 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,492 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bardsley treats Doane as a local surname, a variant of Done/Down/Downes, from residence "at the down," meaning on or by a hill slope or downland. The core element is the Old English word for a hill or down, the same source seen in surnames like Down and Downes. The spelling Doane is a later variant, especially associated with Chester in England and later established in America.
History
The name is documented in England by the sixteenth century, though Bardsley notes that Doane became especially fixed as an American form. One excerpt suggests it probably crossed the Atlantic with Puritan settlers. The name is also associated with the U.S. Episcopal bishop George Washington Doane, which helped make the spelling familiar in American records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers specifically remark that Doane became the established American spelling, even though it was already present in England.
From the historical record
“uit., s- Done, Doane, Doan.— Local, ' at the down,* from residence on the slope of the bill ; v. Donne, Downe, or Downes. A variant peculiar to co. Chester, and found in the dbtrict. Doane has become”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances