Duncombe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A English family name of Norman origin, also borne by a historic estate and village in Yorkshire, England
2. An English surname with Norman roots, and the name of a country house and village in North Yorkshire
3. A family surname of English origin, also applied to a notable estate and settlement in northern England

Etymology: Duncombe is a surname rather than a common word, and its history lies in the English landscape itself. It comes from Old English "dūn", meaning "hill", joined to "cumb", meaning "valley". Put together, the two elements describe a place where a hill rises above a hollow, and many English families took their surname from the farm, manor or settlement at such a spot. Surnames of this kind, known as habitational names, record where a person's ancestors lived rather than what they did or whom they served. The name is therefore a compound of two ordinary Old English place-words, and its meaning is still transparent to anyone who knows the old terms. A family called Duncombe would have been identified by a particular hill-and-hollow setting, and the name passed down with the family once it had settled into use as a hereditary surname.