James Duane Doty named the county Dane, in honor of Nathan Dane, a Massachusetts attorney and delegate to the Continental Congress who helped draft the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The village is named for the county.

Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "DANE, County, is bounded on the northwest by the Wisconsin river, by which it is separated from Sauk; on the north by Columbia, on the east by Dodge and Jefferson, south by Rock and Green, and west by Iowa. It was established ¿ for judicial purposes December 7, 1836, and fully organized March 11, 1839. The seat of justice is at Madison, near the geographical centre of the county, and the Court House is the best in the State. Dane county contains about 1,250 square miles, mostly of good tillable land, and a fertile soil, well apportioned between woodland, openings and prairie, and is well adapted to grazing, and the raising of grain, roots and fruit. There is, in the county, considerable non-resident land which can be bought on reasonable terms. One of the most attractive features of the county is its beautiful lakes of clear, pure cold water, originating in deep springs. The Catfish river forms the outlet of these lakes, and passes from the northwest to the southeast completely through the chain known as the Four Lakes. ¿ The county is watered by the Catfish and Sugar rivers, and Black Earth, Badfish, Token, Waterloo and Koskonong creeks. The population in 1836 was Ebenezer Brigham; 1838, 172; 1840, 314; 1842, 8,289; 1847, 10,935; 1850, 16,654. Farms, 1,511; manufactories, 87; dwellings, 3,510."

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[Source: Dane County History, 1880.]