Lie last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Lie

An occupational surname potentially referring to someone who worked with lye (a chemical).

Lie, 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 Lie surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Lie in America

Lie is the 23472nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Lie surname appeared 1,083 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 Lie.

We can also compare 2010 data for Lie 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 23472 27439 -15.58%
Count 1,083 827 26.81%
Proportion per 100k 0.37 0.31 17.65%

The history of the last name Lie

The surname LIE has its origins in England, with the earliest records dating back to the 12th century. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "leah," which means a meadow or a clearing in a forest. This suggests that the name may have been originally associated with someone who lived near or worked on such a piece of land.

The name can be found in various historical documents, including the Domesday Book of 1086, which recorded landowners and tenants in England after the Norman Conquest. Although the spelling variations were common in those times, entries such as "de la Lea" and "de la Leye" are thought to be early forms of the modern surname LIE.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with this surname was John de la Leye, who was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Staffordshire in 1199. Another notable figure was Sir Thomas de la Lie, a knight who fought in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 during the First War of Scottish Independence.

During the 14th century, the name appeared in several places across England, including Essex, Hertfordshire, and Lincolnshire. This suggests that the surname had spread and established itself in various regions by that time.

In the 15th century, the surname was often associated with place names such as Layham in Suffolk and Leigh in Lancashire. This connection to specific locations further reinforced the geographical origins of the name.

Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the surname LIE. For instance, John Lie (1558-1635) was an English clergyman and academic who served as the President of Magdalen College, Oxford. Thomas Leigh (1595-1672) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons and fought on the Parliamentarian side during the English Civil War.

Other notable figures include Samuel Lie (1711-1788), a Norwegian mathematician and surveyor known for his work in geometry and cartography, and Jonas Lie (1833-1908), a Norwegian novelist and playwright who is considered one of the founders of the modern Norwegian literature.

Finally, Marius Sophus Lie (1842-1899) was a Norwegian mathematician who made significant contributions to the theory of continuous symmetry groups, now known as Lie groups and Lie algebras, which have become fundamental concepts in modern mathematics and theoretical physics.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Lie

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

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 Lie was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 14.96% 162
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.92% 10
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 72.39% 784
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 3.51% 38
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 6.74% 73
Hispanic Origin 1.48% 16

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 Lie has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 14.96% 21.04% -33.78%
Black 0.92% 2.06% -76.51%
Asian and Pacific Islander 72.39% 66.02% 9.20%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 3.51% 3.39% 3.48%
Two or More Races 6.74% 5.93% 12.79%
Hispanic 1.48% 1.57% -5.90%

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 Lie was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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"Lie last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/lie-surname-popularity/.

"Lie last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/lie-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 December, 2024

Lie last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/lie-surname-popularity/.

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