Laufer History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Germany

Laufer is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the township of Great Lever in Lancashire as well as in Little Lever the chapelry in the parish of Bolton in Lancashire. The Laufer family were industrialists and millers, perhaps giving rise to the modern city of Liverpool, from their own Leaver's Port.

Early Origins of the Laufer family

The surname Laufer was first found in Lancashire at Little Lever, now a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester. Great Lever, a township nearby "was long held by the family of Lever, but in the 6th year of Edward IV., Sir Rauff Assheton, Knt., sued out a 'write of right of warde' against Roger Lever, for the recovery of the manor, and obtained judgment against him at the assizes of Lancaster. Lever, however, with a number of dependants of his name, and a large concourse of persons, many of whom had been outlawed, riotously broke into Lancaster Castle, and carried off the record of recovery. Sir Rauff complaining of this outrage to the two houses of parliament, they ordained that the copy of the record which was annexed to his petition should be of the same force and efficacy as the original; and the justices thereupon ordered execution to issue, and reinstated him in the possession, which, notwithstanding, was not undisturbed until some time after. " 1

The village's name was derived from the Old English word "laefre," which means "place where the rushes grow." 2 The first listing of the place name was found in 1212 when it was listed as Parua Lefre. 2 Nearby is Darcy Lever which was the ancestral home of the D'Arcy family since 1590.

Early History of the Laufer family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Laufer research. Another 86 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1521, 1551, 1553 and 1577 are included under the topic Early Laufer History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Laufer Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Laufer family name include Lever, Leaver, Leyver and others.

Early Notables of the Laufer family

Another 39 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Laufer Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Laufer Ranking

In the United States, the name Laufer is the 18,134^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 3

Laufer migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Laufer surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Laufer Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Mathias Laufer, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1751 4

Laufer Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

George Laufer, who arrived in Allegany (Allegheny) County, Pennsylvania in 1837 4
Jacob Laufer, aged 20, who landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1847 4
John Laufer, who arrived in St Clair County, Illinois in 1856 4
Joh Adam Laufer, who landed in America in 1859 4
Jakob Laufer, who arrived in Kentucky in 1883 4
... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Contemporary Notables of the name Laufer (post 1700) +

Walter Laufer (1906-1984), American gold and silver medalist swimmer at the 1928 Summer Olympics, inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1973
Tiffany Ann Laufer, American film director, screenwriter, children's author and illustrator, known for her work on Jenny's Wedding (2015), If You Listen... (2011) and The Bronze (2015)
Peter Laufer, American journalist, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker, James Wallace Chair in Journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
Henry B. Laufer, American mathematician, former Vice President of Research at Renaissance Technologies, co-founder of the Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology at Stony Brook University
Berthold Laufer (1874-1934), German-born, American anthropologist and historical geographer
William F. Laufer, American Democratic Party politician, Alternate Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Ohio, 1960 5
Marsha Z. Laufer, American Democratic Party politician, Delegate to Democratic National Convention from New York, 2004, 2008 5
Franz-Josef Laufer (b. 1952), retired German football midfielder

Citations +

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 7) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html