Lyons
A surname with several roots, most often either a name for someone from Lyon or Lyons in France, or a surname shaped by the lion emblem in Irish and continental traditions.
The #369 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,653 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lyons is usually a locational surname. In English and French records it can mean “from Lyon” or “from Lyons,” referring to the French city or to places with that name; one 19th-century source specifically points to Lyons-la-Forêt in Normandy rather than the larger city of Lyon. In Irish contexts, however, Lyons can also reflect Gaelic forms associated with names built on the word for “lion,” or be an Anglicized surname that converged on the same spelling.
History
Medieval records show early bearers styled de Lyons, de Leonibus, or similar forms, which fits a place-name origin in France and England. The name later spread widely in Britain and Ireland, where it could come from different local or Gaelic sources and eventually settled into the modern spelling Lyons. In the United States it is a fairly common surname, reflecting both Irish and Anglo-French immigration streams.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A single modern spelling, Lyons, can mask more than one historical origin, which is why family lines with the same surname may not be related at all.
From the historical record
“known throughout the university_as Beau- Winder !" LYONS. Not from the great French city, but from the small town of Lious-la- Foret, in the department of the Eure in Normandy. LYS. This name has a very remarkable and somewhat romantic origin. After the death of Joan of Arc, her previously hmiible family were…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom