Lee is a common surname in English-speaking countries.
In Canada, "Lee" was the 4th-most-common surname outside of Quebec. [1] In the United States during the 2000 census, "Lee" was the 22nd-most-common surname. [2]
Lee is a common romanization of the Chinese surname 李, . lit. "Plum" (tree, fruit, and flower), alternatively romanized as Li.
There are several distinct origins of the Lee surname. The most common is derived from Old English lēah, meaning a meadow or forest clearing. [3] [4]
This developed variously into the surnames Lee, Lea, and Leigh.[ citation needed ]
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. [5] One recognized root was the anglicization of the Irish surname "Ó Laoidigh" which resulted in several variants, such as Lee, Lea, and Maclee. [6] Other Lees have English roots and still others may have derived from the Norman "Du Lea".[ citation needed ] The 1901 Irish census [7] list 4912 entries primarily in Galway, Dublin, Cork, Antrim, Limerick and Down counties.
Originating from Norway as "Lie", this surname was altered when it arrived in the Americas in the late 1800s to fit the English language's pronunciation.[ citation needed ]
Several places in the US have been named for the various famous people named Lee:
Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are written last. Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use, but the great proportion of Han Chinese people use only a relatively small number of these surnames; 19 surnames are used by around half of the Han Chinese people, while 100 surnames are used by around 87% of the population. A report in 2019 gives the most common Chinese surnames as Wang and Li, each shared by over 100 million people in China. The remaining eight of the top ten most common Chinese surnames are Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou.
County Clare is a county in the province of Munster in the Southern part of the republic of Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 127,938 at the 2022 census. The county seat and largest settlement is Ennis.
Lee may refer to:
Akins is a Scottish surname and northern Irish family name.
Leigh may refer to:
Smith is an occupational surname originating in England. It is the most prevalent surname in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and the fifth most common surname in the Republic of Ireland. In the United States, the surname Smith is particularly prevalent among those of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, but is also a common surname among African-Americans, which can be attributed either to African slaves having been given the surname of their masters, or to being an occupational name, as some southern African-Americans took this surname to reflect their or their father's trade. 2,442,977 Americans shared the surname Smith at the time of the 2010 census, and more than 500,000 people shared it in the United Kingdom as of 2006. At the turn of the 20th century, the surname was sufficiently prevalent in England to have prompted the statement: "Common to every village in England, north, south, east, and west"; and sufficiently common on the (European) continent to be "common in most countries of Europe".
The Clan Livingstone, also known as Clan MacLea, is a Highland Scottish clan, which was traditionally located in the district of Lorn in Argyll, Scotland, and is seated on the Isle of Lismore. There is a tradition of some MacLeas Anglicising their names to Livingstone, thus the Clan Livingstone Society's website also refers to the clan as the Highland Livingstones. The current chief of Clan Livingstone was recognised by Lord Lyon as the "Coarb of Saint Moluag" and the "Hereditable Keeper of the Great Staff of Saint Moluag".
Griffin is a surname of Irish, English and Welsh origin. Griffin was the 75th most common surname on the island of Ireland in 1891. It was estimated in 2000 that Griffin is the 114th most common surname in the U.S., with a population in the order of two hundred thousand.
Hynes is a surname, many examples of which originate as the anglicisation the Irish name Ó hEidhin.
Hastings is a surname of English and Irish origin, and is used also as a given name.
Raftery is a surname originating in Ireland, predominantly in County Mayo, County Galway and County Roscommon. Edward MacLysaght observes that 'Raftery, sometimes confused with Rafferty, is quite a different name', originating as 'O'Reachtaire', 'reacht' meaning 'decree'.
Hession is an old Connacht Irish surname. It is an Anglicized form of the Irish Ó hOissín. In Irish, it is pronounced "O + hush + een".
Carpenter is a surname. Its use as a forename or middle name is rare. Within the United States, it ranked as the 231st-most common surname as of the 2010 census. The English meaning of carpenter is the occupation of one who makes wooden objects and structures by shaping wood.
Fay is an Irish surname that also arose independently in France. There are different theories about the origin and meaning of the surname.
Hallissey is an English-language surname, derived from the Irish-language, and traditionally associated with the Irish counties of Cork and Kerry.
Lì is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 利 in Chinese character. It is pronounced Lei in Cantonese, and often spelled Lei in Hong Kong and overseas-Chinese communities. It is listed 364th in the Song dynasty classic Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, Li is the 299th most common surname in China.
Lì is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 厲 in traditional characters and 厉 in simplified characters. It is also spelled Lai according to the Cantonese pronunciation. It is listed 247th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.
Li or Lee is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames. Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia. It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018, the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, the most common surname in Macau and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie". The common Korean surname, "Lee", and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Lee and written with the same Chinese character (李). The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".