Family name origins & meanings
- Finnish (Leppänen) : topographic name from Finnish leppä ‘alder tree’ + the common surname suffix -nen. This name is recorded from the 16th century in eastern and western Finland; it was also adopted as an ornamental name during the name conversion movement of the late 19th and early 20 centuries, and is now found chiefly in western Finland. In the U.S. it has sometimes been translated as Alder.