Family History and Genealogy Resources by Surname
Leslie Surname Origin
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.
Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import; Arthur, William, M.A.; New York, NY: Sheldon, Blake, Bleeker & CO., 1857.
Leslie Surname Meaning and Family Facts
Leslie Last Name Meaning
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A Leslie Family History Thought:
'I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who were to come. I looked back and
saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the
sons upon sons beyond.
And their eyes were my eyes.
As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever.
Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end, and the hand of
his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right
hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was, to Time That Is, and Is Not
Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one...' --Richard Llewellyn in How Green Was My Valley