McLeavy Surname

847,909th
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 323 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
England
Highest density in:
Scotland

McLeavy Surname Definition:

The anomalies revealed by birth registrations are often strange. My own brother-in-law whose name is Tadhg on getting his birth certificate found that his registered christian name was Tige and that he was officially a female! The man of a Leavy family who was registered as Levi, if he made no effort to change back to Leavy, must have had difficulty in persuading people that he was not of Jewish ancestry.

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McLeavy Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England2091:266,59421,098
United States711:5,105,055259,233
Canada311:1,188,56786,017
Scotland281:191,20810,357
Australia151:1,799,71385,184
South Africa81:6,772,213167,054
Thailand31:23,546,115908,588
Brazil11:214,074,3321,693,628
France11:66,422,722504,397
Switzerland11:8,212,915156,297
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
Ireland261:170,3798,688
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England251:975,01539,671
Scotland251:149,7296,268
Isle of Man71:7,753762
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States461:1,091,71163,103

McLeavy Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

The anomalies revealed by birth registrations are often strange. My own brother-in-law whose name is Tadhg on getting his birth certificate found that his registered christian name was Tige and that he was officially a female! The man of a Leavy family who was registered as Levi, if he made no effort to change back to Leavy, must have had difficulty in persuading people that he was not of Jewish ancestry.

The form Levy, often seen, does perhaps suggest a modification of Levi. Until I came to examine the question I assumed, as Woulfe does, that Levy and Leavy are abbreviated forms of Dunlevy, and perhaps occasionally they are when met with in the Dunlevy country (see Irish Families pp. 118,119). O'Levy occurs in the Monaghan hearth money rolls of 1666. In actual fact, however, Leavy is seldom to be found in Ulster and, if not solely confined to Co. Longford and Westmeath is much more numerous there than anywhere else. They are a quite distinct sept, akin to the O'Farrells, their name in Irish being Mac Con Shléibhe which in its earliest anglicized forms appeared as MacEnlieve, MacEnleve ,etc. and always in or near Co. Longford. In the O'Clery genealogies, too, we find Genelach Meg Con Sléibhe appropriately presented. In the 1659 “census” it appears as a principal Irish name in the barony of Longford (Co.

Longford) in the guise of MacIlleavy.

The O'Levies or O'Leavys who, as surgeons, were among the professional classes to whom lands were assigned in the sixteenth century in the MacCarthy country were presumably a branch of the Longford sept. W. F. T. Butler suggests that this is the origin of the Levis family, well-known in Co. Cork, since the seventeenth century.

It is perhaps worth adding that there is an English name Leavy, Levy derived from the Old English leofwig meaning beloved warrior, but few if any of our Irish Leavys are of English or Jewish origin.

Supplement to Irish Families (1964) by Edward MacLysaght

(Celtic) Son of Donleavy = Brown of the Hill [Gaelic mac, son + donn, brown + shlèibhe, genit. of sliabh, hill, mountain]

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

McLeavy Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name McLeavy Come From? nationality or country of origin

The surname McLeavy is more frequently found in England than any other country or territory. It can also be rendered as a variant:. Click here for other possible spellings of this last name.

How Common Is The Last Name McLeavy? popularity and diffusion

This surname is the 847,909th most commonly held family name on a global scale It is held by approximately 1 in 22,562,062 people. This last name is predominantly found in Europe, where 74 percent of McLeavy reside; 73 percent reside in Northern Europe and 73 percent reside in British Isles.

It is most widespread in England, where it is carried by 209 people, or 1 in 266,594. In England it is primarily concentrated in: Leicestershire, where 16 percent reside, Greater London, where 12 percent reside and Greater Manchester, where 12 percent reside. Excluding England this surname occurs in 9 countries. It is also found in The United States, where 22 percent reside and Canada, where 10 percent reside.

McLeavy Family Population Trend historical fluctuation

The frequency of McLeavy has changed through the years. In England the number of people who held the McLeavy surname expanded 836 percent between 1881 and 2014; in The United States it expanded 154 percent between 1880 and 2014 and in Scotland it expanded 112 percent between 1881 and 2014.

McLeavy Last Name Statistics demography

The religious adherence of those carrying the McLeavy surname is primarily Moravian (38%) in Ireland.

In The United States those bearing the McLeavy last name are 19.9% more likely to be registered Republicans than The US average, with 66.67% being registered to vote for the party.

The amount McLeavy earn in different countries varies greatly. In South Africa they earn 709.8% more than the national average, earning R 1,924,390 per year; in United States they earn 13.69% more than the national average, earning $49,057 USD per year and in Canada they earn 26.84% more than the national average, earning $63,019 CAD per year.

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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 McLeavy
  • 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