The present denomination of the locality comes from Dunăre – Duna, which means Danube water, and viţ which means little.

The archaeological excavations revealed the vestiges of a Roman fortification, placed on the Danube border of the Roman Empire and dated in II-VI A.D. The fortress had a commercial importance in IV-VI A.D., being used to tranship goods from the sea to the river.

According to the ancient sources, at Dunavăţu de Jos was Ad Stoma – a Greek-Roman locality where, in II-III A.D., Roman civilians land owners lived.

The locality is mentioned for the first time by the statistic map elevated during the anti – Ottoman war from 1828-1829. In 1850, according to Ioan Ionescu de la Brad’s information, the village was abandoned; it isn’t mentioned on the maps of that time. After the Crimea war, a big number of Tartars families settled in Dobrudja. In 1864, Dunavăţu de Jos was one of the villages which were setup by Tartars. Before the Independence war (1877-1878), Tartars leaved the settlement. They were replaced by Russians.