Dubois

Dubois is a surname of French origin. It is derived from the French phrase du bois, meaning “of the woods,” and originated as a toponymic descriptor for someone who lived near a wood or forest. The form Du Bois (two words) is common in francophone contexts, while Anglophone spellings vary, including Dubois, DuBois, and Du Bois.

Beyond a surname, Dubois appears in place names in North America and other regions, reflecting French exploration and settlement. In the United States, examples include the town of Dubois, Idaho, the city of DuBois in Pennsylvania, and Dubois County in Indiana. The name also shows up in other toponyms and has been adopted by communities and institutions, often in forms that preserve the distinction between the original French two-word spelling and the Anglophone variants.

People bearing the surname Dubois have been active across many fields, including politics, science, and the arts. Spelling variations tend to track linguistic and regional conventions, with the two-word French form more common in francophone areas and concatenated or camel-case forms prevailing in English-speaking contexts.

See also: Du Bois (disambiguation).