Luffay History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland
Scotland

The ancient Anglo-Saxon surname Luffay came from an Old English personal name Lufu which affectionately referred to Love. In this case, the name was a "personal name and pet name [Middle English love, luf(e), Old English lufu, from, love]. Lufu was an A.-Saxon fem. name." 1

The surname Luffay was adopted in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. After the Norman Conquest, the Old English naming system gradually dissolved. Old English names became less common and were replaced by popular continental European names. The earliest surnames in England were found shortly after the Norman Conquest and are of Norman French rather than native English origins.

However, two other sources disagrees with this generally accepted origin and in "this name relates not to the tender passion, but is an old modification of the French Loup, wolf." 2 3

Early Origins of the Luffay family

The surname Luffay was first found in Oxfordshire, where one of the first records of the family was listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 as a forename as in Love del Hok. The same rolls lists Alan le Love and Walter Love in Cambridgeshire. 4

Another source claims "Love is an ancient Kentish surname. Reginald Love held property around Chatham and Rochester in the reign of Henry V. The Loves have long been an old Staplehurst [, Kent] family of gentry; a hundred years since there were several inscriptions to this family, some of them obliterated, in the church and churchyard." 5

Up in Scotland, early records there revealed Thomas Lufe who appeared as witness in Glasgow, 1472, and Yhone Luyif was a tenant in the barony of Glasgow, 1521. William Lufe and Ranald Lufe were rebels at the horn in 1534, and John Lufe rendered to Exchequer the accounts of the bailies of the burgh of Renfrew in 1567. 6

Early History of the Luffay family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Luffay research. Another 93 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1095, 1470, 1596, 1608, 1610, 1661, 1682 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Luffay History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Luffay 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 Luffay family name include Love, Lufe, Luf and others.

Early Notables of the Luffay family

Distinguished members of the family include Richard Love (1596-1661), an English churchman and academic, Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, member of the Westminster Assembly, and Dean of Ely; Nicholas Love (1608-1682), an English lawyer, one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England, upon the Restoration, he escaped to Switzerland where he died. On the more infamous side, Peter Love (d. 1610), was an English pirate, believed to have been from Lewes, Sussex. As captain of the Priam...
Another 78 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Luffay Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Luffay family to Ireland

Some of the Luffay family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 76 words (5 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Luffay family

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 Luffay surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Richard Love settled in Virginia in 1642; Edward Love settled in Virginia in 1663; David Love settled in Boston in 1763; Alexander, David, James, John, Joseph, Mary, Mathew, Robert, Thomas and William Love, all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860..

Citations +

Harrison, Henry, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Company, 2013. Print
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Charnock, Richard, Stephen, Ludus Patronymicus of The Etymology of Curious Surnames. London: Trubner & Co., 60 Paternoster Row, 1868. 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)
Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)