Each family connects hundreds of people to form an intricate pattern of ancestors and descendants. Our origins span the world, our families come from all religions and ways of life. The common thread of Heraldry links many cultures and establishes the foundations of a Surname before words were a common understanding and images demonstrated a basic understanding to the populace.
This page represents the following Surnames: L’Escuyer. Lecuyer. Lequyer. Leduyer. L’Ecuyer. Leclerc. Lescuier. L’Equier. Lapierre. LaNeuville. Lefebvre. L’Ecuyer dit Lapierre.
Heraldry for every family is represented on each page as it has become available through out our research, as a tribute to the historical and evolutionary process that each family has survived. Name definitions are provided for each family as we find a connection to them, through intermarriage or discovery. Scottish, English and Irish families are represented with tartans, badges and other memorabilia as it becomes available to us. We’ve worked very hard at finding the most accurate and appropriate connections for each surname, if you see an error or have more information to add, please contact us via e-mail at CSGS@SnowStones.com.
Lecuyer Name Meaning and History
French (Lécuyer): from écuyer, originally meaning ‘shield-bearer’ (Latin scutarius, a derivative of scutum ‘shield’). This became a status name for a man belonging to the social rank immediately below that of knight. The surname came to America with the Huguenots. It is sometimes translated as Cook; the original term having lost transparency of meaning, it was taken as a derivative of cuire ‘to cook’.
Family Name History: L’Ecuyer
The Historical Research Center
The French surname L’Ecuyer is of occupational origin, being derived from the profession of the original bearer. In this case the surname traces it’s root to the Old French word ‘escutier’ (Modern French ‘ecuyer’) which originally denoted one who bore a shield (cf. Latin ‘scutum’, a ‘shield’). The original bearer would thus have been a knight or esquire in rant, who had both the privilege and obligation of fighting in the King’s cavalry in battle. Today the word has, by extrapolation, taken on the meaning of an ‘equerry’ or ‘horse-man’, and is applied not only to military personnel but also to show-jumpers, jockeys and circus performers. The Old French word ‘scu’ originally denoted a ‘shield’, and an ‘ecuyer’ may in some instances have referred not to one who bore a shield but to a craftsman who made shields. In later years the name ‘ecu’ was given to a small coin, the equivant of an English ‘crown’, which was worth some three francs. In rare instances, therefore, the surname L’Ecuyer may have been adopted by one who minted such coins. The surname is also found as Lecuyer, Ecuyer, Lescuyer, Escuyer, Escudier and Escudie.
The surname was borne by an ancient and noble family from Perche in Normandy who traced it’s direct line to the Fourteenth Century, and whose arms are illustrated below. Another family was represented in the Fifteenth Century by one Pierre Lescuyer, Seigneur de Vaulx and Agnes le Dicome, whose daughter Catherine Lescuyer married into the noble House of Housset. In 1659 the head of the family L’Ecuyer of Picardy as raised to the nobility, with the bible of Comte de Murek.
Blazon of Arms: Argent, between six martlets sable. A fess azure charged with three escallops of the field.
Crest: Three ostrich plumes, one argent between two azure.
Origin: France
Family Crest: 
Surname References from:
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Encyclopedia of Surnames, John Ayto, A & C Black Publishers Ltd, ISBN 978 0 7136 8144 4
(Unless otherwise stated)