LeKander: meaning/origin
Hello,My mother's maiden name is LeKander, which she and my grandmother assure me is Swedish, but I've never been able to find any info confirming this or giving an explanation of its meaning.Any Scandinavian surname experts out there?Thanks much,Grant in Los Angeles
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Lekander is SwedishThough I have never seen it spelt LeKander, only Lekander.There is a famous journalist/author/translator named Nina Lekander in Sweden."You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams."
(On Children by Kahlil Gibran)
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Though the name is from Sweden the language is Greek. This is a snob thing, educated people used to adopt Latin or Greek versions of their names in some European countries. Surnames ending in -mann often became xxxander, from the Greek word for man (root, andr). So you have surnames such as Orander for Bergmann, Neander for Neumann or Nymann, Xylander for Holzmann, etc. My knowledge of Greek is limited to virtually nil, so I can't help you with the LEK component. I should state that it should be classical, rather than Modern Greek. Also it's possible that it isn't Greek at all. Some snobs were not so clever, and combined Latin and Greek, e.g., Taxiander; and some just translated half of the name, e.g., one smartypants named Hosemann who became Osiander.
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Very interesting... I studied Ancient Greek for a few years in college, so I'll dig out the old lexicon and see what I can find re 'Lek-.'Maybe 'lek-' was originally 'leks-' ('lex-') from the Greek 'lexis.'
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I too am in search of my family origins. As soon as I find information I will post.
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