At 10:06:51 AM on Sunday, May 22, 2005, Joao S. Lopes wrote:
> Is there any site about German surnames' etymology?
If there is, I haven't found it yet.
> I'd like to know the origin of surname Dungel.
It seems to be rare enough not to have made it into the
standard references readily available to me, but I can guess
at some possibilities. My first choice would be a weakened
form of <Dunkel> ('dark'); this can derive from a personal
description or from a farm name (referring to location on
the northern face of a hill). (Brechenmacher also mentions
a MLG <dunkel> 'self-righteous', but Google suggests that
the surname is especially common in Austria.)
Brian