Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of three places in Essex – Layer Breton, Layer de la Haye, and Layer Marney – all named from a river name, Leire, or from Leire in Leicestershire, also named from an identical river name. The river name is of Celtic origin and is probably the base of the tribal name Ligore, found in the place name Leicester.
- English : nickname or status name from Anglo-Norman French le eyr ‘the heir’. Compare Ayer.
- English : occupational name for a stone layer, Middle English leyer; the job of the layer was to position the stones worked by the masons.
- German : habitational name for someone from any of the various placed named Lay, in the Rhineland and Bavaria.