Family name origins & meanings
- Northern English : topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, from Old Norse lœkr ‘brook’. There are also a number of places named with this word--such as Leake in North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire, Leek in Staffordshire, and Leck in Lancashire--and the surname may also be from any of these. Compare southern English Leach 2.
- Northern English : possibly also a metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of leeks, from Old English lēac.