Lee is a common surname in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-speaking countries. There are several distinct origins of the Lee surname. The most common surname of English origin is derived from Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 lea, meaning "meadow, forest clearing" (see leigh

Leigh

- In England :* Leigh, Dorset* Leigh, Greater Manchester** Leigh * Leigh, Kent* Leigh, Staffordshire* Leigh, Surrey* Leigh, Wiltshire* Leigh, Worcestershire* Leigh-on-Mendip, Somerset...

), and is therefore a name describing the bearer's place of residence. In Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Lee has been used to Anglicise Gaelic Laoidhigh, an occupational surname meaning "poet." Spelling variants of both the English and the anglicized Gaelic names include Leigh and Lea. The Lees of Shropshire, West Midlands region of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, notable as the forebears of the colonial American Lee family

Lee family

The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. Through the past few hundred years it was believed that Colonel Richard Lee of Virginia descended...

 (members of which include Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee

Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....

, Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States...

 and Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...

), has a name derived from Norman

Norman language

Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...

 de Lee.

In the present era, Romany Gypsies in Britain usage of the surname Lee, Leigh, or Legh is derived from the English word "leek," a translation of the Romany Gypsy surname Purrum, meaning "onion." Lee was the 35th most common surname in England and Wales in the 1990s, and the 213th in U.S.A. in 1990. However, this American prevalence is dominated by the name of Asian origin (see the Chinese surname Li or Lee

Li (surname)

Li is a common transliteration of several Chinese family names, including 李 , the most common Chinese family name, and the Korean family name Lee...

 and the Korean surname Lee or Rhee

Lee (Korean name)

Lee is the common English spelling of 이 , a common Korean family name. The proper pronunciation in South Korea is like the English letter "E", although in North Korea the name is still written as "리" and pronounced "Lee". Many times South Koreans will knowingly introduce themselves as "Lee" to...

).

A number of places in the US have been named for the various famous people named Lee:

• Lee, Massachusetts
  Lee, Massachusetts
  Lee is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, metropolitan statistical area. The population was 5,943 which was determined in the 2010 census. Lee, which includes the villages of South and East Lee, is part of the Berkshires resort...
  
  
• Lee, New Hampshire
  Lee, New Hampshire
  Lee is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,330 at the 2010 census. The town is a rural farm and bedroom community, being close to the University of New Hampshire.-History:...
  
  
• Lee Township, Michigan (disambiguation)
• Lee Township, Minnesota (disambiguation)
• Lee's Summit, Missouri
  Lee's Summit, Missouri
  Lee's Summit is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Cass. As of the 2010 census found the population at 91,364 making it the sixth-largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area and the sixth-largest city in Missouri...
  
  
• various places named Fort Lee (disambiguation)
• various places named Leesburg (disambiguation)
• various places named Leesville (disambiguation)

Lee is frequently used as a given name derived from the surname. In the U.S., its popularity as a male first name occurred in the 1890s and as a female first name in the 1950s. Lee is also common as a middle name

Middle name

People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname. In Canada and the United States all such names are specifically referred to as middle name; in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc....

.