Origin
Lee : 1: English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land Middle English lee lea from Old English lēa dative case (used after a preposition) of lēah which originally meant ‘wood or glade’.2: English: habitational name from any of the many places in England named with Old English lēah ‘wood glade’ including Lee in Buckinghamshire Essex Hampshire Kent and Shropshire and Lea in Cheshire Derbyshire Herefordshire Lancashire Lincolnshire and Wiltshire.3: Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Ó Laoidhigh ‘descendant of Laoidheach’ a personal name derived from laoidh ‘poem song’ (originally a byname for a poet).4: Americanized form of Norwegian Lie or Li 11.5: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 李 黎 利 栗 厲 and 酈. See Li 1-6.6: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 雷 see Lei 1.7: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 呂 see Lu 6.8: Southeast Asian (Hmong): variant of Ly 2.9: Southeast Asian (Iu Mien): from the name of the Lee clan of the Iu Mien people from Laos. Compare Saelee.10: Korean: variant of Yi 1. Compare Lie 3.
Atherley : English (Midlands):: 1: topographic name for someone living ‘at the clearing or meadow’ from Middle English at the(r) lee (Old English æt thǣre lēage). Compare Atlee.2: variant of Heatherly a variant of Hatherley with loss of initial H-. The surname Atherley is also found in the West Indies (mainly Barbados) Guyana and Panama.
Atlee : English: topographic name for someone whose dwelling was ‘by the clearing or meadow’ from Middle English at the(r) lee (Old English æt thǣre lēage). The word lea or lee (Old English lēah) originally meant ‘wood’ thence ‘clearing in a wood’ and by the Middle English period ‘grassy meadow’.
Attley : from Middle English at the(r) lee ‘(dweller) at the woodland clearing’ (Old English æt þǣre lēage). Compare Atherley.
Delee : 1: Irish: variant of Deeley.2: English: variant of Delea itself possibly a variant of Duley (see Delay).3: Dutch (De Lee): habitational name from De Lee the name of several waterways a syncopated form of leede derived from leiden ‘to lead’.
Errington : English (Durham and Northumberland): habitational name from Errington in Saint John Lee (Northumberland) so called from a British river name akin to Welsh arian ‘silvery bright’ + Old English tūn ‘enclosure settlement’.
Fallowfield : English (northern): habitational name from Fallowfield in Saint John Lee (Northumbria) or Fallowfield in Withington (Lancashire). The placenames derive from Old English fealu ‘fallow-colored yellowish’ or falh ‘newly cultivated land or fallow land’ + feld ‘open land’.
Fohn : 1: Swiss German (Föhn): probably a nickname from Föhn ‘rain-shadow wind’ a kind of warm dry wind characteristic of the lee side of mountains in Alpine regions in autumn.2: German (mainly North Rhine-Westphalia): unexplained.
Greenwood : 1: English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): habitational name from Greenwood Lee in Heptonstall (Yorkshire) from Middle English grene ‘green’ + wode ‘wood’.2: Americanized form (translation into English) of Jewish (Ashkenazic) Grünholz an ornamental compound of German grün ‘green’ + Holz ‘wood’ and probably also of the same German surname.3: Americanized form (translation into English) of German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Grünwald (see Grunwald) and of French Boisvert.
Highley : English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): habitational name from High Lee in Luddenden Foot (Yorkshire). This is the main source of the name although in some instances the source may be another place of similar name such as High Legh (Cheshire). The Yorkshire placename probably derives from Old English hygel ‘hillock’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’ while the Cheshire placename derives from Old English lēah with later addition of Middle English heigh ‘high’.
Lees : 1: English and Scottish: topographic name from Middle English lees ‘fields arable land’ plural of lee (see Lee) or from Middle English lese ‘pasture meadow’ (Old English lǣs).2: English: habitational name from Leece or Lees in Lancashire or Leese in Cheshire all named from Old English lēas ‘woodland clearings’ (plural of lēah) or from Leece in Cumbria which was probably named with a Celtic word lïss ‘hall court the principal house in a district’.3: English: variant of Leece 1.4: Scottish: shortened form of Gillies.5: Scottish and Irish: shortened and altered form of McLeish.6: Dutch: variant of Leys.
Ly : 1: Vietnamese (Lý): adoption of the Chinese word 李 ‘plum’; see Li 1 compare 3 below.2: Southeast Asian (Hmong): from the name of the Ly or Lee clan of the Hmong people in Laos China and Vietnam; in Chinese characters it is written 李 (see Li 1 compare 3 below). Compare Lee 8.3: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 李 and 黎 see Li 1 and 2.4: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 呂 see Lu 6.
Oxley : 1: English (Yorkshire): habitational name from Ox Lee in Hepworth (Yorkshire) or from other places called Oxley such as that in Staffordshire. The placenames derive from Old English oxa ‘ox’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.2: Possibly also an Americanized form of South German Öchsle (see Oechsle). Compare Axley.
Saelee : Southeast Asian (Iu Mien): from the name of the Lee clan of the Iu Mien people from Laos + the Thai prefix sae denoting a clan. Compare Lee 8.
Underhill : English: topographic name for someone who lived below or in the lee of a hill from Middle English under + hill.
Whitley : English: habitational name from one or more of the many places called Whitley (in Yorkshire Cheshire Northumberland Wiltshire Warwickshire) Whiteley or Whitleigh (in Berkshire). The placename is common generally with the meaning ‘white clearing’ (Old English hwīt ‘white’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’) or occasionally ‘wheat clearing’ (Old English hwǣte + lēah). According to Redmonds the Yorkshire surname originated in a locality in the Elland area perhaps White Lee in Scammonden or White Lee in Mytholmroyd.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
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