Durban Name Meaning, Origin and Heraldry

A Durban ancestor may well appear as Durbin in earlier records. Surname dictionaries give the meaning as “Little deer”.

Arms associated with the name

Arms linked to Durbin and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

Spelling and variants

Before spelling was fixed, Durbin was also written Durban. Other spellings include Derbin.

In the 2010 US Census, 353 Americans gave Durban as their last name (rank 57,639). French civil records give 411 births under the name Durban from 1891 to 2000, peaking in 1961–1970. Births ran at 18 in 1891–1900 and 37 in 1991–2000. Want more than a summary? See the Durban family name pack.