LEMING
The surname Leming is of English origin. It is generally understood to have first arisen as an Anglo‑Saxon convention of naming. In its earliest form the name was derived from the Old English word leming, meaning “limping” or “lame”. In a period when nicknames were commonly adopted to describe a distinctive physical trait, an individual who walked with a noticeable limp was at times designated by this appellation. Over the centuries the nickname was inherited, becoming a hereditary family name.
Another school of etymology points to a locational basis. The places now called Leeming Bar in North Yorkshire and Leeming House in West Yorkshire bear the same name. Both localities are linked to a river whose name can be traced back to the Old English pre‑7th‑century word leoma and in Middle English to leeming. The etymological sense here is that of a “shining, bright, sparkling” watercourse. Thus a family originating from either of those villages could have adopted the place name as a surname.
A third hypothesis interprets the name as deriving from a personal name in Old English, Leofman, rendered in Middle English as Lefman. The element leof means “dear” or “beloved” and the second part mann or man simply denotes a man. In this scenario the surname would effectively mean “son of the dear man”, with the name being a patronymic form. Parallel theories using Old Norse have proposed that the name may have been patronymic as well, meaning “son of Leofman”, with Leif meaning “inheritance” and eng indicating a meadow, which together could signify a residence “by the meadow of inheritance”.
Documentary evidence of the surname’s existence in medieval England is held in the Oxfordshire Hundred Rolls of 1273, where one Stephen Leming is recorded. The same family appears in the County of York, where a coat of arms was granted. The blazon is that of an ermine field with a cross patonce azure; the crest consists of a griffin passant azure.
In contemporary usage the name remains uncommon. Within the United Kingdom the surname is found mainly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In the United States it is most frequently encountered in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Texas, while in Canada it is sporadically reported. Across all regions there exist several recognised variants of the spelling, including Lemming, Lemmings, Leman, Leeming, Leaming, Liming, Laming, Leeman and Lemmen. Each variation may represent a distinct family branch with its own lineage, and the exact genealogical linkage between them is best established through dedicated research.
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
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Sorry, we don't have any statistics on this name. That's probably because it's very uncommon in Britain.
