Family name origins & meanings
- French and English : topographic name for someone who lived in the main market square of a town or village, from Middle English, Old French place (Late Latin platea (via) ‘broad street’, ‘free public open space in a town’).
- French and English : from Middle English, Old French plaise ‘plaice’, ‘flatfish’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or a seller of these fish, or perhaps a nickname for someone thought to resemble a flatfish.
- French and English : topographic name for someone who lived near a quickset fence, from Middle English, Old French pleis (Latin plexum, past participle of plectere ‘to plait or weave’).