Frequency: (115)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German: 1. (Döde): in the north, from a Germanic personal name Duco (see Dietz). 2. perhaps a nickname for someone with a grim or cadaverous appearance, a Low German homonym of tot ‘dead’, but probably from an old nursery word dot ‘godfather’, Middle High German dode.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
