Family name origins & meanings
- English : variant of Lye.
- French : habitational name from Ley in Moselle.
- French and German : from a medieval personal name, Eloy (Latin Eligius, a derivative of eligere ‘to choose or elect’), made popular by a 6th-century saint who came to be venerated as the patron of smiths and horses.
- German (Rhineland) : topographic name from Middle High German leie ‘rock’, ‘stone’, ‘slate’, or a habitational name from any of several places named with this word. Compare Leier.