Family name origins & meanings
- English : occupational name for someone who led a horse and cart conveying commodities from one place to another, Middle English ledere, an agent noun from Old English lǣdan ‘to lead’. The word may also sometimes have been used to denote a foreman or someone who led sport or dance, but the name certainly did not originate with leader in the modern sense ‘civil or military commander’; this is a comparatively recent development.
- English : occupational name for a worker in lead, from an agent derivative of Old English lēad ‘lead’.