(male) New Testament name, borne by one of Christ's twelve apostles, referred to as ‘Thomas, called Didymus’ (John 11:16; 20:24). Didymos is the Greek word for ‘twin’, and the name is the Greek form of an Aramaic byname meaning ‘twin’. The given name has always been popular throughout Christendom, in part because St Thomas's doubts have made him seem a very human character.
Short form: Tom.
Pet form: Tommy.
Cognates: Irish: Tomás. Scottish Gaelic: Tòmas; Tàmhas. Welsh: Tomos. German, Dutch, Scandinavian: Thomas. French: Thomas. Spanish: Tomás. Portuguese: Tomás. Italian: Tommaso. Russian: Foma. Polish: Tomasz. Czech: Tomáš. Croatian: Toma. Slovenian: Tomaz. Finnish: Tuomo. Latvian: Toms. Lithuanian: Tomas.
1. English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land, Middle English lee, lea, from Old English lēa, dative case (used after a preposition) of lēah, which originally meant ‘wood’ or ‘glade’.
2. English: habitational name from any of the many places named with Old English lēah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, as for example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire.
3. Irish: reduced Americanized form of Ó Laoidhigh ‘descendant of Laoidheach’, a personal name derived from laoidh ‘poem’, ‘song’ (originally a byname for a poet).
4. Americanized spelling of Norwegian Li or Lie.
5. Chinese 李: variant of Li 1.
6. Chinese 黎: variant of Li 2.
7. Chinese 利: variant of Li 3.
8. Korean: variant of Yi.
FOREBEARS Lee is a prominent VA family name brought over in 1641 by Richard Lee (d. 1664), a VA planter and legislator. His great-grandsons included the brothers Arthur, Francis L., Richard Henry, and William Lee, all prominent American Revolution legislators and diplomats. The Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee was the son of Henry ‘Lighthorse Harry’ Lee (1756–1818), another revolutionary war hero.
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![[Image: Color-coded map of the United States showing name distribution by state.]](/map/Thomas.Lee.US.gif)
