Lavigne
A French surname meaning “the vine” or “from the vineyard.”
The #4,891 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 42,858 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lavigne comes from French la vigne, meaning “the vine” or, by extension, “the vineyard.” As a surname, it likely began as a topographic or locational name for someone who lived by a vine, a vineyard, or a place called Lavigne/Vigne. The deeper root is Latin vinia/vinea, the source of French vigne.
History
The name is especially associated with French-speaking families and appears in older English-language surname books as a French form. In North America it is found among descendants of French and French-Canadian families, and in some cases among later Anglicized spellings or related forms. The surname is common enough in French contexts that its spelling has remained fairly stable.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it literally means “the vine,” Lavigne is one of those surnames that sounds poetic in English for an entirely ordinary historical reason: it began as a place-based description.
From the historical record
“Lavies ; Prot. ref. n., 1683 Lavin. Fr. Lavigne ; a p.n. (a vine¬ yard) Lavington. A loc. n., Wilts Law. A loc. n., Dur., Lanark ; Lauwe, Belg.”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)