Lamp

LAMP (rhymes with "stamp")

Lamp is probably a shortened or altered form of Lamb, and may also reflect Lamprey or Lambert in some families.

The #8,209 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,384 Americans shares it.

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Etymology

The surname Lamp is usually explained as a corruption or shortened form of the surname Lamb or Lambe. Nineteenth-century surname writers also noted that in some cases it may stand for Lamprey or even Lambert, so it is not always a single-source name. As a family name, it is therefore best understood as an altered form rather than a word meaning 'lamp' in the modern sense.

History

The name appears in English surname lists as a variant form related to Lamb and, less often, to Lamprey or Lambert. It is recorded in scattered English and later American contexts, but it was never a very common surname. The modern U.S. distribution suggests a small number of independent family lines rather than one large, widespread clan.

Origin

descriptive or nicknameEnglish

Regions

EnglandUnited States

Variant spellings

LambeLampkinLamkinLampreyLamprayLambert

Fun fact

A 19th-century surname dictionary explicitly says Lamp is a corruption of Lamb, and that the diminutives Lampkin and Lambkin belong to the same group.

From the historical record

“LAMBKIN. See LAMP. LAMP. Corruption of the name Lamb, Lambe. It may some- times represent Lampray, Lamprey ; or even Lambert. Hence the diminutives Lambkin and Lampkin. LAMPREY, LAMPRAY. Not from the fish, but from Lara- pridius, name of a Latin historian of the fourth, and of a Latin poet and scholar of the…”

— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames

Related surnames

Confidence: sourced. Sources: Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames.

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