DUrville

dUrville, usually written with an apostrophe as d'Urville, is a French toponymic surname derived from Urville, a place name in Normandy. The form reflects a historical usage indicating origin with the preposition de or d’. In English-language contexts the apostrophe is sometimes omitted, yielding dUrville.

The best-known bearer is Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790–1842), a French naval officer and explorer. He commanded expeditions on the ships Astrolabe and Zélée and carried out major voyages in the Pacific and Antarctic regions. During the 1837–1840 expedition he explored parts of the southern oceans and named Terre Adélie in honor of his wife Adèle. His work contributed to cartography, ethnography, and natural history, and several geographic features and institutions have been named after him.

In modern usage, the surname remains a French family name, and the toponymic association endures in polar and geographic naming. Notable uses of the eponym include the Dumont d'Urville Station, a French research station in Antarctica, and the designation of the Dumont d'Urville Sea in the Southern Ocean. The name d'Urville also appears in historical and genealogical contexts as a lineage linked to Urville places in France, such as Urville-Nacqueville in Normandy.