Family name origins & meanings
- French (Lécuyer) : from écuyer, originally meaning ‘shield-bearer’ (Latin scutarius, a derivative of scutum ‘shield’). This became a status name for a man belonging to the social rank immediately below that of knight. The surname came to America with the Huguenots. It is sometimes translated as Cook; the original term having lost transparency of meaning, it was taken as a derivative of cuire ‘to cook’.