Lefebvre (French:[ləfɛvʁ]ⓘ) is a common northern French surname. Other variations include Lefèbvre,
Lefèvre, Lefeuvre (western France) and
Lefébure (northern France and Normandy).
In the
Occitan and
Arpitan extension area, the variation is Fabre, Favre, Faure, Favret, Favrette or Dufaure and in
CorsicaFabri (cf. Italian Fabbri, Fabri). In Celtic-speaking
Brittany, the corresponding name is Le Goff(ic), with the article le to translate
Bretonar.
For
Anglophone pronunciation purposes, the name has evolved, especially in the United States and Anglophone regions of Canada mainly by
Acadians, among whom it is also a common surname, to LaFave, LeFave, Lefever and Lafevre, as well as other variant spellings. The English surname Feaver is also derived from Lefebvre. (See Lefèvre for more.)
The name derives from faber, the Latin word for "craftsman", "worker"; used in Late Latin in Gaul to mean
smith. Many northern French surnames (especially in
Normandy) are used with the definite masculine article as a prefix (Lefebvre, Lefèvre; a more archaic spelling is Le Febvre), with the
contracted masculine article as a prefix (Dufaure) in the south of France, or without article/prefix (Favre, Faure) in the south of France, but the meaning is the same.[1]
^Albert Dauzat, Jean Dubois, Henri Mitterand, Noms et prénoms de France, Larousse 1981. New full-filled edition by
Marie-Thérèse Morlet.
Surname list
This page lists people with the
surnameLefebvre. If an
internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that
link by adding the person's
given name(s) to the link.