Lemen History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The ancient Anglo-Saxon surname Lemen came from the baptismal name for the son of Leman, which was taken from the personal name Liefman. 1

Early Origins of the Lemen family

The surname Lemen was first found in Suffolk at Wenhaston, a parish, in the union and hundred of Blything. "The family of Leman had a [family] seat here. The church is an ancient structure in the decorated English style, with a square embattled tower, and contains several monuments to the Leman family." 2

The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 provided some of the earliest records of the family, typically with ancient spellings: Leman Bru in Norfolk; Alan filius Leman in Cambridgeshire; Eldred Leman in Somerset; and Thomas Letman in Oxfordshire. 3

Early History of the Lemen family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Lemen research. Another 83 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1185, 1616, 1637, 1645, 1660, 1667, 1690, 1695, 1701 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Lemen History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Lemen 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 Lemen family name include Leaman, Leamen, Leman, Lemon, Lemmon, Leemon, Limon and many more.

Early Notables of the Lemen family

Notables of the family at this time include Sir John Leman, Lord Mayor of London in 1616; Sir William Leman, 1st Baronet (died 1667), an English politician who sat in the House of...
Another 32 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Lemen Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Lemen Ranking

In the United States, the name Lemen is the 18,603^rd most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 4 However, in France, the name Lemen is ranked the 5,607^th most popular surname with an estimated 1,000 - 1,500 people with that name. 5

Migration of the Lemen family to Ireland

Some of the Lemen family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Lemen migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, 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 Lemen surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Lemen Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Alexander Lemen, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1812 6
James Lemen, aged 40, who arrived in Texas in 1871 6
Mr. William Charles Lemen, (b. 1876), aged 22, Cornish miner, from St Austell, Cornwall, UK travelling aboard the ship "Teutonic" arriving at Ellis Island, New York on 21st April 1898 en route to Hancock, Michigan, USA 7

Contemporary Notables of the name Lemen (post 1700) +

James Lemen Jr., American politician, Delegate to Illinois State Constitutional Convention from St. Clair County, 1818
Bob Lemen, American Republican politician, Candidate for U.S. Representative from Minnesota 8th District, 2000, 2002

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
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)
Cornwall Online Parish Clerks. (Retrieved 3rd May 2018). Retrieved from http://www.opc-cornwall.org/Resc/pdfs/emigration_ellis_island_1892_on.pdf