Duane is an anglicized form of the Irish surname O Dubhain, from dubh, "dark" or black, so it is usually read as "little dark one". It was a popular American name in the 1940s and 1950s, when the spellings Duane, Dwayne and Dwain all flourished, and guitarist Duane Allman and Duane Eddy kept it in the rock-and-roll spotlight. Duane ranked number 861 in 2000, slipped out of the top 1000 after that and stands at number 2578 in 2025.