Family name origins & meanings
- German and Danish : metonymic occupational name for a salmon fisher or a seller of salmon, Middle High German lahs ‘salmon’.
- English (northeastern counties) and Danish : from an Old Norse nickname, Lax, meaning ‘salmon’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Lachs ‘salmon’, Yiddish laks, one of the many Ashkenazic surnames taken from words denoting fish, birds, and animals.