Frequency: (119)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
French (Brittany, Touraine): from French levant ‘east’, a topographic name for someone who lived in the eastern part of a town or settlement, or outside it to the east; or a regional name for someone who had migrated westward (and so was regarded as coming from the east). It may also denote someone from the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean (see Leventis).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
