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Updated June 9, 2019

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.

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