Lea is an English surname. The surname Lea has a superficially Italian appearance to it, though it is not actually of Italian origin, it originates from the Old English Lēah, which predates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. After the Norman Conquest, an infusion of Norman, French, and Latin entered into the lexicon of England, resulting in the development of multiple spelling and phonetic variants of the surname. Examples of these variations include the more common version of the surname, "Lee", as well as less common versions, such as Lei, Ley, and Leigh. Whereas the "a" is silent in Lea, it is often mistakenly pronounced with an "ah" sound at the end of the name.
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The surname Lea means "meadow", "pasture", "field", or an open clearing of space in a wooded area. There are analogous names in other Germanic languages such as "Loo" in Dutch or "Lōh" in Old High German, with identical meanings.
Lea is still a surviving surname in areas of southern and northern England. Lea has also existed in North America since 1608 with the arrival of the English immigrant William Lea (son of Nicholas Lea, Waterford County, Ireland [Englishman not Irish]) to what is now King and Queen County in the Virginia Colony. Leas were among some of the very first immigrants to come to North America from England in the 17th century, and historically hailed from the southern United States in places such as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Leas in the 19th century spread into the upper Midwest as well, and by the mid-20th century had reached as far west as southern California. Today, "Lea" comprises a very small percentage of the English surnames in the United States, with some American Leas able to trace back their ancestry to William Lea or one of his two brothers who came with him to Virginia in 1608.