This surname may be extinct

Leifchild Surname Definition:

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'liefchild,' i.e. dear child (v. Leaf); lief, dear, still exists in 'I had as lief; compare Darling.

William Lefchild, Close Rolls, 3 Edward I.

William Levechilde, Close Rolls, 13 Henry IV.

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Leifchild Surname Distribution Map

By incidenceBy frequencyBy rank
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England131:1,875,02858,113

Leifchild Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'liefchild,' i.e. dear child (v. Leaf); lief, dear, still exists in 'I had as lief; compare Darling.

William Lefchild, Close Rolls, 3 Edward I.

William Levechilde, Close Rolls, 13 Henry IV.

Cecilia Levebarne, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1696. Baptised-Henry, s. Henry Liftchild: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1763. Married-John Church and Martha Leafchild: St. George, Hanover Square.

— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

For Liefchild, q.v.

— Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

Leffechyld occurs in a poem of the XV. century, cited by Halliwell, in the sense of dear or beloved child; and so early as 1222, it is found as a Christian name-Lefchild, son of Sprot. See Hale's Domesd. of St. Paul's, p. 57; but the family believe themselves to be of German extraction, and claim another etymology, deducing the name from leib and schild, "bodyshield," from some peculiarity in the defensive armour of the original assumer. In like manner the founder of the Rothschilds is presumed to have derived his name from his using a 'red shield,' which is the literal meaning of it.

— Patronymica Britannica (1860) by Mark Antony Lower
DNA test information

Phonetically Similar Names

Incidence (high to low)Incidence (low to high)Alphabetic A-ZAlphabetic Z-ASimilarity (high to low)Similarity (low to high)Prevalent jurisdiction A-ZPrevalent jurisdiction Z-A
SurnameSimilarityWorldwide IncidencePrevalency
Liftchild898/
Leftchild890/
Lefhail751/
Leifhelt711/
Lefhel677/
Lafhil671/
Lafhail63172/
Lifjeld6337/
Leifsell592/
Levschel591/
Lefjel53170/
Lebsil531/
Lifjell5028/
Libseld501/
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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Leifchild
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis