Lee

Variations

Lea, Li, Leigh, Lei, Legh

Meaning

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land or a habitational name from any of the many places named with Old English leah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, as for example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire.

Irish: reduced Americanized form of Ó Laoidhigh ‘descendant of Laoidheach’, a personal name derived from laoidh ‘poem’, ‘song’ (originally a byname for a poet).[http://www.ancestry.com/facts/lee-name-meaning.ashx]

According to the U.S. Census (2000), Lee was the 22nd most popular surname in the U.S. with approximately 605,860 persons. Of those, 40.09% were white, 37.83% were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 17.41% were African-American.U.S. Census Bureau

Famous Persons

• Robert E. Lee: career U.S. Army officer, an engineer, and the general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War.
• Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III: cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.
• Alexander Christopher Lee: a British historian and political theorist.

Links

Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_%28English_name%29

Birthplace of Robert E. Lee: http://www.stratfordhall.org/

Geneology Forum : Geneology.com