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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from Lancaster in northwestern England, named in Old English as ‘Roman fort on the Lune’, from the Lune river, on which it stands, + Old English cæster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’). The river name is probably British, perhaps related to Gaelic slán ‘healthy’, ‘salubrious’.

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