Lettow was a by-name given to a few Pomeranian nobles from a noble family from Vorbeck who went to assist Algirdas and Vytautas, the Great Dukes of Lithuania, in the 14th century. Lettow meant "Lithuania" in the Saxon language, and it appears in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales , wherein it is said of the Knight, a veteran of the Baltic Crusades: "Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne / Aboven alle nacions in Pruce; / In Lettow hadde he reysed, and in Ruce, / No Cristen man so ofte of his degree." [1]
With a few variants like Lettau, Lettaw, Litav, Littauer or Littawer, it was also adopted by some other Vorbe(c)ks in Pomerania as a surname. In Lithuania, later on, it was spelled Lettowt or Letowt, before the 20th century Lithuanian surname policy changed it to Letautas. John Lettou was a 15th century bookbinder and printer in England, presumably a German from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Today, most people with the surname Lettow live in Germany and the United States, some in Holland as van Lettow, and a few in Austria, Latvia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, South America, and even in China (in the 20th century several Letowts lived and worked in Harbin and Shanghai).
Chronologically the following people have had the surname Lettow:
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