Home>Name Popularity>Last Names>L>Litc-Liti>Lewis in the US

Lewis

in the US

There are 419,836 people with the last name "Lewis" in the United States.

Add to web page

Ranking in the US

NameRank
Lewis 24
close
  1. is 20th most common Martinez
  2. is 21st most common Harris
  3. is 22nd most common Clark
  4. is 23rd most common Hernandez
  5. is 24th most common Lewis
  6. is 25th most common Lopez
  7. is 26th most common Walker
  8. is 27th most common Robinson
  9. is 28th most common Hall

Similar Names and Nicknames

Lewin, Lewicki, Lewison, Lewinski, Lewing, Lewicke, Luwisch, Lewiski, Lewick, Lehigh

Most Common First Names for Lewis

James, Robert, John, Michael, David, Mary, William, Richard, Charles, Linda

Want more records for listing? Try our sponsors!

Meaning & History

1. 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.

2. Welsh: from an Anglicized form of the personal name Llywelyn (see Llewellyn).

3. Irish and Scottish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lughaidh ‘son of Lughaidh’. This is one of the most common Old Irish personal names. It is derived from Lugh ‘brightness’, which was the name of a Celtic god.

4. Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish surnames.

FOREBEARS This name was brought independently to New England by many bearers from the 17th century onward. William Lewis was one of the founders of Hartford, CT, (coming from Cambridge, MA, with Thomas Hooker) in 1635. The explorer Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) was a native of Albemarle Co., VA, where he was a neighbor of the Jeffersons, Randolphs, and other prominent families. His family also had plantations on the Broad River in Oglethorpe Co., GA. The Lewis family in VA date back to Robert Lewis, a native of Brecon, Wales, who settled in what is now Gloucester Co., VA, about 1635. Another early bearer of this very common British surname is Francis Lewis, a New York merchant and signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was born in 1713 in Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales.

Some content provided by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press, Inc. does not make any representation or warranty as to, or accept responsibility for the accuracy, currency, or completeness of the content of the information supplied and users should seek independent verification of the facts described therein.

Recent Searches for "Lewis" in the US

Since June 2009
154,674

Most Popular Search

James Lewis (4,474 searches)
Source: Current searches and listings for US adults on WhitePages. (nv2)

© 2010 WhitePages Inc. - Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Microsoft MapPoint Terms of Use and Privacy Statement