Of territorial origin from the lands or barony of the name. Earl David, brother of William the Lion, granted c. 1171—99 the lands of Lesslyn in the Garioch to Malcolm son of Bartholf (CAB., p. 547), a Fleming. Robert de Leslie was rector of the church of Slains, 1272 (REA., I, p. 34), and Symone de Lescelye or Lesellyn witnessed a quitclaim of Beeth Waldef in Fife, 1278 (RD., p. 52-53). Sir Norman de Lechelyn of Aberdeenshire rendered homage in 1296. His seal bears six shields in a circle conjoined in base, each charged with 3 round buckles on a bend, S' Normanni de Lecelin, militis (Bain, II, p. 195,205, 539). Norman of Lesley was a hostage for the king of Scotland in 1425 (Bain, IV, 983). The name was early carried to France, and appears there as De Lisle, the family name of the viscounts de Fussy. William Leslie, younger, of Wartle, became bishop of Laibach, Carniola, and metropolitan in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Old: Leslei, Lesli, Lesly, Lessely, Loussily.

(Scottish) One from Leslie (garden of hollies), in Aberdeenshire; descendant of Leslie (from the gray fort).

"The family of Leslie, to which belong two Scottish peerages, trace their origin to Bartholomew, a Flemish chief, who settled with his followers in the district of Garioch, in Aberdeenshire, in the reign of William the Lion. He took the name of De Lesley from the place where he settled. The heralds, however, have an old legend representing the first man of the family as having acquired distinction and a name at once, by overcoming a knight in battle, at a spot between a less lee (meadow) and a greater.

Local: from the Castle of Leslyn in Hungary. The family are descended from Barthlomew Leslyn or Leslie, son of Walter de Leslyn, a Hungarian noble, who in the year 1068, came to Scotland in the company of Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore. In crossing a river swollen by floods, the queen was thrown from her horse, and in danger of being drowned, when Leslyn plunging into the stream seized hold of her girdle, and as he brought her with difficulty towards the bank, she frequently exclaimed "grip fast," and afterwards desired that he should retain the words as his motto. He married the sister of Malcolm Canmore, and was by that monarch made Governor of Edinburgh Castle, Lord Leslie and Earl of Boss.

This family, according to tradition, descended from Bartholomew de Leslyn, a noble Hungarian, who came to Scotland with Queen Margaret, about the year 1067. He was the son of Walter de Leslyn, who had assumed this surname from the castle of Leslyn, in Hungary, where he was born. Bartholomew being in great favor with Malcom Canmore, obtained from that prince grants of several lands in Aberdeenshire, which it is said he called Leslyn, after his own surname. Malcom de Leslyn, who succeeded him, was the progenitor of all the Leslies in Scotland.

Robert Verstegan, in his Antiquities, remarks on the word ley: "A combat having taken place in Scotland between a noble of the family of Leslie and a foreign knight, in which the Scot was victorious, the following lines in memory of the deed, and the place where it happened, are still extant:

"Between the Less—Ley and the Mair,

He slew the knight and left him there."

The name may be derived from Lesslo, a maritime territory in Denmark.