Lee (English surname) Not to be confused with Lee (Korean surname) or Lee (Chinese surname). Coat of Arms of the Lee of Shropshire Family Lee is a common surname in English-speaking countries. Lee is one of the most common British surnames and the 24th-most-common in the United States during the year 2000 census.[1] OriginsEdit England There are several distinct origins of the Lee surname. The most common is derived from Old English lēah, meaning a meadow or forest clearing.[2][3] This developed variously into the surnames Lee, Lea, and Leigh. The Lees of Shropshire (originally Norman de Lee) were notable as the forebears of the colonial American Lee family which produced Richard Henry Lee, Robert E. Lee, and Zachary Taylor. Ireland The name in Ireland has several diverse origins, resulting in widely dispersed clusters of the name in South Western, Western (Galway) and North Eastern Counties.[4] One recognized root was the anglicization of the gaelic surname Ó Laoidaigh which resulted in a number of variants, such as Lee, Lea, and Leigh.[5] Other Lees have English roots and still others may have derived from the Norman Du Lea. The 20th and 21st centuries saw the arrival of Chinese Lees as well. The 1901 Irish census[6] list 4912 entries primarily in the counties of Galway, Dublin, Cork, Antrim, Limerick and Down. Romani More recently, in Britain, Gypsies have used the surnames as a homophonic translation (via leek) of the Romani surname Purrum, which also means onion.[citation needed] Asian Meanwhile, in America, more than a fifth of Lees now come to it as Chinese or Korean Americans translating numerous surnames also romanized as Li,[1] particularly the one deriving from the Chinese word for plum (李, pinyin Lǐ; S.Kor. 이, Lee; N.Kor. 리, Rhee; Vietnamese 李, quốc ngữ Lê, Lý or Lí) which is among the most common surnames in the world. In America, Lee is the most common surname for Chinese and Korean Americans and the second-most-common surname for Asian and Pacific Islanders, behind the Vietnamese Nguyen.[1] Similarly, Lee is the third-most-common surname among Chinese Singaporeans.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:16:34 +0000
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