Nunn
Usually from an old personal name or a word for a nun, with possible links to a pious nickname or a monastic connection.
The #2,164 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,412 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one possible source. One explanation is that it comes from an old personal name recorded in Anglo-Saxon England, Nun, which is also found in early medieval sources. Another line of explanation connects it with Middle English "nunne," meaning a nun, either as a nickname for someone with a devout or reserved manner or as a name linked to a vowess or convent association. Some 19th-century writers also compared it with Germanic personal-name forms such as Old German Nunno and with French spellings like Nanno or Nanne.
History
The name appears early in English records and was already being discussed by 19th-century surname scholars as an old English surname. Over time it persisted in England and later spread to other English-speaking regions, including the United States. Because the surname may have several origins, different families called Nunn are not necessarily related.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One early source notes a possible link to Alice le Nonne, showing how surname forms could arise from descriptive bynames in medieval records.
From the historical record
“^^ NUM. See XAM. NUNN. An old A-Sax. personal name. One Nun was a kinsman of lua, king of the West Saxons — Nun, Ince in'opinciwus. See Hon. Hist. Brit. 326, &c., &c. Anno 710. " Ine and Nun, his kinsman, fought against Gerent, king of the AVelsh." Saxon Chronicle. But the surname may have originated from a lapse…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom