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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish personal name Leyb, meaning ‘lion’, traditional Yiddish translation equivalent of the Hebrew name Yehuda (Judah), with reference to the Old Testament description of Judah as ‘a lion’s whelp’ (Genesis 49: 9).
  • French (Alsace) : from a Germanic personal name Leibo (from an earlier form Laibo), the element laib- being related to Gothic laiba ‘remnant’, Old High German leipa ‘relic’, ‘memento (of a family)’.
  • Altered spelling of German Lieb.

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