The personal name Duncan can be found on Scotland’s oldest
records in its Gaelic form Donnchadh. Among these records is a reference
to the death in 717 of Dunchad, the eleventh Abbot of Iona.
In 965 the killing of the Abbot of Dunkeld is recorded, showing
his name to be Duchad. When Duncan I took the Scottish throne,
his grandfather had the blood of several relatives on his hands,
having murdered the way clear for Duncan.