Lazarus
A surname from the biblical name Lazarus, often understood as “God has helped”; in some English families it was also used for a leper or one associated with leprosy.
The #7,541 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 70,010 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lazarus comes from the biblical name Lazarus, which goes back to the Hebrew name Eleazar (Elʿazar), meaning “God has helped” or “God is help.” Through Latin and biblical tradition, Lazarus became a familiar Christian personal name and later a hereditary surname. In English records, the name was also sometimes linked to leprosy, since Lazarus in medieval and biblical usage could evoke a leper or outcast.
History
The surname appears in Jewish naming traditions and also in Christian European usage as a taken surname or inherited family name. Nineteenth-century surname writers note that in some English instances it was connected with a leper, reflecting medieval association rather than the Hebrew meaning alone. It is also found among German Jewish surnames adopted or retained in the modern period.
Origin
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Fun fact
Some older surname books treat Lazarus as a name that could point either to biblical piety or, in medieval English use, to the stigma of leprosy.
From the historical record
“Leper. LAZARUS. A Jewish surname. LAZEXBY. LAZOXBY. Lasenby, a localit}' in the parish of Kirk-Leatham, co. York, or more probably Lazonby, a parish in Cumberland. t^s" LE. A common prefix to medieval surnames, being the French definite article, equivalent to our fJte. It was dropped from English surnames after the…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom