As described in historical dictionaries

Patronymica Britannica (1860)

LATE. Probably a sobriquet given on account of want of punctuality. Its opposite. Early, is also a surname, but that is otherwise accounted for, both in the body of this Dictionary, and in the Appendix.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.


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