Don.
A diminutive of the male given names Donald, Donovan, and Gordon.
Meaning & usage
A diminutive of the male given names Donald, Donovan, and Gordon.
A river, the fifth-longest in Europe, in Tula, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Volgograd and Rostov Oblasts, Russia, flowing 1160 miles to the Sea of Azov.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Russian and Ukrainian Дон (Don). Known in Ancient Greece and Rome as Latin Tanais, Ancient Greek Τάναϊς (Tánaïs).
A river in Aberdeenshire council area, Scotland, United Kingdom, flowing 62 miles to the North Sea at Aberdeen.
A river in South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, on which Doncaster is situated.
A minor river in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom, which joins the Tyne at Jarrow.
A river in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, named after the River Don in Yorkshire.
A locality in the City of Devonport, Tasmania, Australia.
Where this word comes from
Probably from the common Celtic river name Proto-Celtic *Dānu << Proto-Indo-European *dʰenh₂-, found in many other river names such as Danube, and Dniester. Connected with the Welsh river goddess Dôn, whose name is from the same origin, though it could have been influenced by Welsh dawn (“gift”), Irish dán (“gift, offering”), Latin dōnum.
A surname.
Where this word comes from
* As an English and Scottish surname, variant of Dunn. * Also as an English and Scottish surname, from Dun, a place in Scotland. * As an Italian surname, variant of Dono, shortened from dono di Dio (“gift of God”). * As a Galician surname, from a nickname derived from don (“kindness, favor”). * As a Hungarian surname, variant of Donát, Donath. * As a French surname of Germanic origin, from the old name Dodo, related to Dodier, from the name Dodhari, the first element a reduplicated word of arbitrary origin and the second from *hari (“army”). * Also as a French surname, from the place Don in Nord. * As a Jewish surname, from a variant of Dan. * As a Chinese surname, Romanized from 曾, see Zeng. * As a Vietnamese surname Đôn, possibly from Chinese 敦, see Dun.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.