LemaîtreFrench Means "the master" in French, either used as a nickname for someone who behaved in a masterful manner or an occupational name for someone who was a master of their craft.
LenoirFrench French surname which was originally a nickname for a person with dark hair or skin, derived from noir "black" combined with the definite article le. A famous bearer is Étienne Lenoir (1822 - 1900), the inventor of the internal combustion engine.
LéotardFrench From the given name Leopold. Jules Léotard was an acrobat who popularized the leotard, a gymnastics garment. The garment is named after him.
LessardFrench Name for someone who lived in a clearing, derived from French l'essart meaning "the assart" (a term for cleared forest land used for agriculture). It is also a habitational name for someone from any of various locations named Lessard or Lessart, of the same origin and meaning.
LetendreFrench From 'tendre', meaning "tender" or "delicate".
LétourneauFrench Nickname for a chatty, gregarious person or an occupational name for a birdcatcher, derived from French l'étourneau meaning "the starling".
LeverFrench, English Nickname for a fleet-footed or timid person, from Old French levre ‘hare’ (Latin lepus, genitive leporis). It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a hunter of hares... [more]
LinéFrench (Rare) From Old French liné meaning "made of linen". This name was an occupational name for someone who weaved linen or was a linen merchant.
ListratFrench From Occitan "listrat" meaning "chopped off, striped" or from "Listrac", a commune in the Gironde department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwest France.
LottFrench From the Department (Region/State)in France, "Lot" and "Lot-et-Garrone"; also a river in France (Lot). Brought to the British Isles, Holland (Netherlands) and later the United States, Canada and South Africa, by French Huguenots.
LupinFrench Lupin is a variant on the Latin word "lupus", meaning "wolf". Two important literary characters, Arsène Lupin, the famous French gentleman-burglar, and Professor Remus Lupin, from the world of Harry Potter, have this name... [more]
LuquetteFrench (Quebec) Canadian spelling of French Luquet, derived from a pet form of the given name Luc. It is also a variant of French Loquet, a metonymic occupational name for a locksmith.
LyéFrench A habitational name from places named Lié located in Deux-Sèvres and Vendée.
MaceEnglish, French English: from a medieval personal name, a survival of Old English Mæssa, which came to be taken as a pet form of Matthew.... [more]
MaconFrench, German French: See Maçon. An occupational name for a mason, French maçon. Habitational name from places so called in Saône-et-Loire, Allier, Aube, the Côte d’Or, Gers, and Deux-Sères... [more]
MaffretFrench beleived to originated in{ NICE, france} in the late 19th century, emmigration from france to london,{stepney}, where the surname was mistakenly added an extra letter "T" resulting in the surname MAFFRETT
MaineFrench French topographic name from Old French maine ‘dwelling’, ‘residence’, ‘abode’, or a habitational name from any of numerous places so named.
MaitreFrench occupational name for one who was the head of a craft or trade guild, from Old French maistre ‘master’ (Latin magister).
MajorsNorman Based on the Norman given name Mauger. The name indicates one who is the son of Maugier, an Old French personal name, which is derived from the Old Germanic name Malger, which means council spear.
MalecuitFrench Means "doughy," "soggy," or "undercooked" in French.
MalfaitFrench Derived from French mal fait, which literally means "poorly done, badly done". In the context of the surname, it refers to the first bearer being "malformed" or "deformed" (as it was in the eyes of people from older times), which means that he either was physically disabled or able-bodied but with a physical trait that deviated from the norm.
MalfoyFrench Malfoy is a French name roughly translating to "bad faith"
MalinEnglish, French, Dutch From the given name Malin (English), and from the given name Madalin composed of the Germanic element madal meaning "council" (French, Dutch).
MalletAnglo-Norman, Medieval English, French, Catalan Originated in Norman France and spread to England following the Norman conquest of 1066. The surname comes from the given name Malle, an Old English diminutive of Mary or from the given name Malo, a popular form of the name of Saint Maclovius, a 6th-century Welsh monk who the church of Saint Maclou in Rouen is named for.... [more]
MaloretFrench This surname comes from the French and means 'unfortunate' or 'luckless'.
MalpassEnglish, Scottish, French Habitational name from any of various places named Malpas, because of the difficulty of the terrain, from Old French mal pas "bad passage" (Latin malus passus). It is a common French minor place name, and places in Cheshire, Cornwall, Gwent, and elsewhere in England were given this name by Norman settlers... [more]
MansellAnglo-Norman, French A status name for a particular type of feudal tenant, Anglo-Norman French mansel, one who occupied a manse (Late Latin mansa ‘dwelling’), a measure of land sufficient to support one family... [more]
MansellEnglish (Canadian), Norman Of Norman origin, a habitational or regional name from Old French mansel ‘inhabitant of Le Mans or the surrounding area of Maine’. The place was originally named in Latin (ad) Ceromannos, from the name of the Gaulish tribe living there, the Ceromanni... [more]
ManvilleFrench A locational surname deriving from any of the various places in France called "Manneville or Magneville", named, from the Old Germanic personal name "Manno" or the Old French adjective "magne", great, with the word "ville", meaning a town or settlement.
MaqueronFrench Of debated origin and meaning. Theories include a derivation from Picard maqueron "chin" (in which case this would have been a pejorative nickname for someone with a protruding chin) and a diminutive of Macquart.
MarchantFrench, English, Spanish Variant of Marchand, from French marchand meaning "merchant, mercantile". Though it is of French origin, it was transferred into the Spanish-speaking world, especially Chile, by French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
MarquisFrench, English, Scottish for someone who behaved like a marquis or an occupational name for a servant in the household of a marquis, from Old Northern French marquis. The title originally referred to the governor of a border territory (from a Germanic word; compare March1 and Mark2)... [more]
MaseyEnglish, Scottish, French, Norman English and Scottish (of Norman origin) and French: habitational name from any of various places in northern France which get their names from the Gallo-Roman personal name Maccius + the locative suffix -acum.... [more]
MathenyFrench (Anglicized) Of French origin. According to Matheny family tradition, this surname comes from the name of a village in France named Mathenay. This may also have been a French Huguenot surname.
MaturinFrench From the French male personal name Maturin, from Latin Mātūrīnus, a derivative of Mātūrus, literally "timely". It was borne by the Irish "Gothic" novelist Charles Maturin (1782-1824).
MeauxFrench Habitational name from a place in Seine-et-Marne, so named from the Gaulish tribal name Meldi, or from Meaux-la-Montagne in Rhône.
MéeFrench French habitational name from places called (Le) Mée in Mayenne, Eure-et-Loir, and Seine-et-Marne, derived from Old French me(i)s ‘farmstead’ (Latin mansus).
MerrimenNorman An ancient Norman name, that would have been used in Britain soon after the Conquest of the island in 1066. This name was given to a person who was a person who was a mischievous child, or who liked to play tricks and make jokes.
MessiaenDutch, French Derived from Messiaen, the (archaic) Dutch form of the latinate first name Messianus, which itself is ultimately derived from the Roman praenomen Messus. The meaning of Messus is not wholly certain; it may be derived from the Latin verb meto "to reap, to harvest, to cut, to sever", or from the latinized form of Greek mesos or messos "(the) middle, (the) middle one"... [more]
MessierFrench Occupational name for someone who kept watch over harvested crops, Old French messier 'harvest master' (Late Latin messicarius, agent derivative of messis 'harvest').
MetrejonLouisiana Creole (?), French (?) Maiden surname of Constance Leto (nee Metrejon). She was born in Louisiana and has Cajun(French) ancestry. The Metrejon line is traced back to Joseph Marie Maitrejean, who was born c. 1778, in Belle-Île-en-Mer, France, an island off the coast of Brittany.
MickleyFrench It originated when an immigrant family named Michelet came to New York from Northern France. Because they had a foreign surname, they made up the names Mickley and Michelin. The originator was Jean Jacques Michelet (John Jacob Mickley), a private in the Revolutionary War... [more]
MolyneuxFrench Possibly a habitational name from Moulineux, meaning "mill of the waters", or derives from the Old French name De Molines or De Moulins, meaning "mill". The surname has been linked to a large French family that settled in Lancashire from France.
MonteblancoFrench, Spanish Originally from France "Mont Blanc" but translated when arrived in Spain.
MontesquieuFrench From French montagne, meaning "mountain" and possibly also from queue, meaning "line". Charles Montesquieu was a 17th-century French aristocrat, philosopher and politician.
MontyFrench, English Topographic name for a mountain dweller, from Old French mont 'mountain' (Latin mons, montis).
MonvoisinFrench Married surname of a infamous 17th century fortune teller and poisoner, Catherine Monvoisin nee Deshayes, known as La Voisin. Executed for witchcraft in 1680 in the affair of the poisons. Her clients included the elite of Paris including a mistress of Louis XIV.
MoraleeEnglish, French First found in Norfolk where they were seated from very early times and were granted lands by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord, for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings.
MorantEnglish, French From the Old French personal name Morant, perhaps from a nickname meaning "steadfast", or alternatively of Germanic origin and meaning literally "courage-raven". A known bearer was the British-born Australian soldier and poet Breaker Morant, original name Edwin Henry Murrant (?1864-1902).
MullinixFrench A locational name "of de Moloneaux" probably from the noble family who trace their descent from William the Conqueror, from Molineaux-sur-Seine, near Rouen. The name came to England during the wake of the Norman Conquest... [more]
MunchDanish, French, Norwegian (Rare) Either a variant of Münch or Munk, both meaning "monk". A notable bearer was Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944), whose best known work is 'The Scream'.
NaultFrench From a short form of various medieval personal names derived from Germanic personal names formed with wald 'rule' as the final element, in particular Arnold.
NavarreFrench The name means "By the sea". Originally a country of its own, located between Spain and France, Navarre became a part of France in 1284 when the Queen of Navarre married King Philip IV of France. After much war, becoming independent once again, and falling into Spanish rule, the Kingdom of Navarre is now split between Spain and France.
NeugerGerman, French (?) Was popularized by the German community. Famous bearers include investors Win Neuger and Dan Neuger, author Christie Cozad Neuger.
NobleEnglish, Scottish, Irish, French Nickname from Middle English, Old French noble "high-born, distinguished, illustrious" (Latin nobilis), denoting someone of lofty birth or character, or perhaps also ironically someone of low station... [more]
NoirFrench Means "black" in French, originally used in Northern France as an ethnic nickname for someone from Southern France, Spain, Italy or North Africa. It also may have been used for someone who wore dark clothing or for someone who had an occupation during the night or was associated with the night.
NugentEnglish, Irish, French An English, Irish (of Norman origin) and French habitational surname derived from any of several places in northern France (such as Nogent-sur-Oise), From Latin novientum and apparently an altered form of a Gaulish name meaning "new settlement".