Lemery last name popularity, history, and meaning

Find out how popular the last name Lemery is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Lemery.

Meaning of Lemery

A French surname derived from a place name referring to someone from Lemery.

Lemery, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Lemery surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Lemery in America

Lemery is the 30043rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Lemery surname appeared 781 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Lemery.

We can also compare 2010 data for Lemery to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 30043 30229 -0.62%
Count 781 731 6.61%
Proportion per 100k 0.26 0.27 -3.77%

The history of the last name Lemery

The surname Lemery is of French origin, with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old French words "le" (the) and "mère" (mother), suggesting a connection to a maternal lineage or perhaps a place named after a prominent matriarchal figure.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Victor de Marseille, a medieval manuscript from the 11th century, where a certain Guillelmus de Lemeria is mentioned as a landowner in the region of Provence.

During the 12th century, the name appears in various records from the Normandy area, such as the Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame de Lyre, indicating the spread of the surname across northern France. It is believed that the name may have originated from a place called Lemery, though the exact location is uncertain.

In the 13th century, a notable figure bearing the surname was Guillaume de Lemery, a French philosopher and theologian who taught at the University of Paris. He was born around 1210 and is known for his contributions to scholastic philosophy.

Another historical figure was Nicolas Lemery, a prominent French chemist and writer who lived from 1645 to 1715. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern chemistry and authored several influential works, including the "Cours de Chymie" (Course of Chemistry).

During the 17th century, the Lemery surname gained prominence in the New World, with Jacques Lemery, born in 1640 in France, being one of the earliest settlers in Quebec, Canada. He is considered one of the ancestors of many Lemery families in North America.

Other notable individuals with the surname include Louis-Mathurin Lemery, a French botanist and explorer who lived from 1786 to 1840, and Jean-François Lemery, a French playwright and actor born in 1750.

Throughout its history, the Lemery surname has undergone various spelling variations, such as Lemerey, Lemerie, and Lemmerie, reflecting the evolving nature of language and regional differences in pronunciation and written forms.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Lemery

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Lemery.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

  1. White only
  2. Black only
  3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
  4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
  5. Hispanic
  6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Lemery was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 91.68% 716
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 2.43% 19
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 2.82% 22
Hispanic Origin 1.66% 13

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Lemery has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 91.68% 94.53% -3.06%
Black (S)% 0.00% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 2.43% 2.74% -11.99%
Two or More Races 2.82% 2.05% 31.62%
Hispanic 1.66% (S)% (S)%

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Lemery was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Lemery, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

Search for a name

Search for a first or last name to learn more about its origin, meaning, and more.

Simple as that.