Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from a personal name, in which two originally distinct names have fallen together: a pet form of the personal name Lorenz, and the Germanic personal name Lanzo, which was originally a short form of any of several compound names with land ‘land’ as the first element, e.g. Lambrecht (see Lambert).
  • German : nickname from Middle High German lenz e ‘spring’ from lang ‘long’, since in this season the days grow longer. The name may also have been bestowed on someone who was born in the spring or who owed rent or service at that time of year, or it may have denoted someone who was of a sunny and spring-like disposition.
  • German : habitational name from any of several places named Lenz.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from German Lenz ‘spring’ (see 2), one of the class of ornamental names adopted from words denoting the seasons. Compare Summer, Winter, Herbst, Fruhling.