Lennox
A Scottish surname taken from the old district around the River Leven in Dumbartonshire.
The #9,097 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 85,978 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lennox is generally treated as a locational surname from the old county and earldom of Lennox in western Scotland. The place-name is commonly explained from an earlier form meaning “the field of the Leven,” referring to the River Leven and the surrounding district; older spellings include Levenach and Levenax. Some 19th-century writers also connected the river name with a Welsh root meaning “smooth” or “placid,” but that deeper derivation is less certain than the Scottish place-name itself.
History
The surname is associated with the historic earls of Lennox and the western Scottish district around Dumbartonshire and Loch Lomond. Early writers sometimes linked the family’s rise to a Saxon/Northumbrian figure, Arkil, who is said to have settled in Scotland after the Norman Conquest. In modern usage Lennox remains most familiar as a Scottish surname, and it has also spread widely through the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older sources record the county name in forms that look very different from the modern spelling, showing how place-names could shift dramatically over time.
From the historical record
“Senioi", Eld, &c., has been suggested. LENNOX. The ancient county of Dinn- barton, Scotland, once mucli more extensive than now. The original name of the dis- trict was Leven-ach, ' the field of the Leven,' and designated not the basin only of that river, hut also of Loch-Lomond, once called Loch-Leven. Levenachs…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom