LeMay
A French surname most often understood as meaning “the May one” or “from May,” with several possible roots in French naming patterns.
The #4,182 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,447 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually treated as French, but the exact origin is not settled from the available evidence. It may come from a form built on May, which could refer to the month of May or, in some cases, to a personal name such as Mai/May. The French article le- suggests a family-name form meaning something like “the May one” or “the one associated with May,” but older scholars offered more than one explanation.
History
The name appears in French-speaking areas and was later carried into North America, especially through French and Franco-Canadian lineages. In English-language records it is often written as Lemay or LeMay, with capitalization varying by family and region.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because le may can be read in more than one way, older surname books sometimes debated whether it was tied to the month of May, a personal name, or another French word entirely.
From the historical record
“et mat). Lemay. Les arbres de mai (qui étaient au moyeu âge uu grand motif de réjouissauce ; u'out pas grande raisou d'être dans la forma- tion de ce nom, «lui me semble une forme de moi : maire, chef de cor-”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)