TURNER LEWIS

Transferred use of the surname, in origin an occupational name for someone who made articles of wood, bone, or metal by turning them on a lathe. Among Blacks in the United States it is sometimes used as a given name in honour of Nat Turner, a slave who in 1831 led an insurrection against local landowners before being captured and executed.

English (but most common in Wales): from Lowis, Lodovicus, a Norman personal name composed of the Germanic elements hlod ‘fame’ + wīg ‘war’. This was the name of the founder of the Frankish dynasty, recorded in Latin chronicles as Ludovicus and Chlodovechus (the latter form becoming Old French Clovis, Clouis, Louis, the former developing into German Ludwig). The name was popular throughout France in the Middle Ages and was introduced to England by the Normans. In Wales it became inextricably confused with 2.