Female 'doño' ("archaic form of treatment don") ; it is used before the name to express respect, especially in America, where it is also used as a very informal noun by "woman, lady". It comes from the Latin domina, ae ("lady, ama") -feminine of dominus, i ("lord, master") - , which in Italian is donna and in Spanish simplified the double /n/ as /ñ/ [note: some online dictionaries confuse it with verbs/donut, because they take their definitions translating from languages that interpret the /ñ/ as a /n/ with tilde, and end it by associating it with gifts or gifts; but Spanish speakers know that it is a mistake]. See the abbreviations Dña . , D . ª .