Gender Masculine
Meaning & History
Transferred use of the surname Gurney. A bearer of the surname was Ivor Gurney (1890-1937), a British poet and composer who is noted especially for his songs and poems of World War I.A fictional bearer is Gurney Halleck from Frank Herbert's Dune series of science fiction novels. He is a weaponmaster and minstrel, a loyal member of the Atreides' household. His appearance is described as 'an ugly lump of a man', though his portrayal in the novels show that he has indeed some charisma. Gurney was portrayed by Patrick Stewart in the 1984 David Lynch film Dune and by P. H. Moriarty in the 2000 TV miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. The character was played by Josh Brolin in the 2021 movie adaptation Dune.