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The lyon Surname

lyon Name Meaning and History

  1. Scottish, English and French: from Old French, Middle English lion (Latin leo, genitive leonis), hence a nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, or a habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a lion.
  2. Scottish, English, French, and Dutch: habitational name from the city of Lyon in south central France (English name: Lyons), or from the smaller Lyons-la-Forêt in Eure, Normandy. The name of the former is recorded in the 1st century bc as Lugdunum and is from the name of a Celtic god Lug (or this as a personal name, from a word meaning ‘brightness’) + dunon ‘hill fort’.
  3. Scottish and English: from the name Leo(n) (from Latin leo ‘lion’, or the cognate Greek leon), borne by numerous early martyrs and thirteen popes.
  4. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Laighin (see Lane 2).

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The lyon name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the lyon family name as far back in history as possible.

lyon Family Facts

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Distribution of lyon Families in the US in 1920
Number of lyon families
 424-846
 142-423		 1-141
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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