Lindsay
A surname of place-name origin, most likely from the old English district of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, though some early writers linked it to Essex.
The #1,052 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,284 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lindsay is generally treated as a locational surname, referring to someone who came from the district of Lindsey in Lincolnshire. The place-name itself is usually explained from an older English form meaning “island of Lincoln” or “Lind’s island,” though the exact ancient form is debated. Some 19th-century writers also proposed a connection with a manor called Lindsey in Essex, but the Lincolnshire explanation is the one most often given.
History
The name became prominent in Scotland through the noble house of Lindsay, which later produced the Earls of Crawford. Early antiquarians even told a tradition that an English-born Lindsay followed Malcolm Canmore to Scotland and became the ancestor of the Scottish line. The surname also appears in Ireland, where it may sometimes represent an English import and sometimes be associated with local Gaelic surname forms rendered into English.
Origin
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Fun fact
The Earls of Crawford from the Lindsay family were a major Scottish noble line, and one 19th-century source counted twenty of them between 1398 and 1808.
From the historical record
“The same as Liud. LINDSAY. This distinguished family, who boasted of twenty Earls of Crawford, extending from the year 1398 to 1808, and whose deeds have been recorded by a noble member of the house, in his " Lives of the Lindsays," were in all probability of Eng- lish origin, and the name appears to have been…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom