Duda
An old personal-name surname, probably from a short medieval given name related to Anglo-Saxon Duda or similar forms.
The #5,743 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 51,168 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally treated as coming from an old personal name, Duda, rather than from an ordinary modern word. Historical surname dictionaries connect it with Anglo-Saxon name-forms such as Duda or Thiuda, which were used as given names before becoming hereditary surnames. In some cases it may also reflect later spelling variation or confusion with related forms like Dodd or Dudding.
History
The name appears in historical surname lists alongside other short Anglo-Saxon personal names that later produced English surnames. By the 19th and early 20th centuries it was already regarded as an established surname, though not a very common one. The same spelling also occurs outside English contexts, so in modern records Duda can have more than one independent origin depending on the family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Weekley grouped Duda with a cluster of old short-name surnames such as Budd, Codd, Dunn, and Tait, showing how many everyday surnames grew from very brief medieval personal names.
From the historical record
“Dudd. N. ]7j65ar ; A.S. Thiuda Dudda ; theod (people) ; G Duda ; p.n. Dudderidge. A loc. n., neai Alwinton, Devon Dudding. From Dudden; a loc. n.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)Notable people named Duda
- Andrzej Duda (b. 1972)
- Ondrej Duda (b. 1994)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.