799 Global LOAN Family Members

LOAN Family History

This name, with variant spellings Loan, Lane, Lain, Layne etc., has three distinct possible origins, the first and most likely being an English topographical name for one resident in a narrow pathway between fences or hedges, later used of any narrow passage including one between houses in a town. The derivation in this instance, is from the Old English pre 7th Century "lanu", (Medieval English "land"), a lane, and early recordings of the surname include: Osbertus in Lane, (Surrey, 1212); Adam Ithelane, (Bedfordshire, 1227), and Nicholas atte Lone, "Worcestershire, 1275), Lane may also have originated as a metonymic occupational name for a worker in wool, from the Old French "la(i)ne", (Latin "lana"), meaning wool, and finally Lane is an Anglicized form of two Gaelic Irish surnames O Laighin, (descendant of Laighean, a byname of the warrior).