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Question:I have ancestors named Levering, and I'm wondering if Levering could possibly be a corruption of Lefevre. Lefevre is French. Leverings lived in Holland in the 17th century. I'm trying to determine the national origin of the name Levering. Could Lefevre possibly change to Levering in Holland? (I would think the "v" in Levering would more easily change to an "f" sound than the contrary.)


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have ancestors named Levering, and I'm wondering if Levering could possibly be a corruption of Lefevre. Lefevre is French. Leverings lived in Holland in the 17th century. I'm trying to determine the national origin of the name Levering. Could Lefevre possibly change to Levering in Holland? (I would think the "v" in Levering would more easily change to an "f" sound than the contrary.)

Having dealt with name mangles for over 20 years, I would strongly suspect that Levering and Lefevre are completely UNRELATED. Name mangles usually occur because of someone who couldn't read or write orally stating their name and some clerk or official wrote down their best guess. Different letters have different sounds in various countries and even regions within the country (if you are in the US, imagine the difference in spellings one could come up with if the same name was spoken by someone from Boston vice someone from Atlanta).

But Lefevre is pronounced "Le Fay" so even with the similarity orally between maybe an "F" or a "V", I would suspect a name mangle on Lefevre to be either Lefay or Levay, not Levering. I could see Lefering instead of Levering.

But when trying to figure out possible name mangles, really think about the pronunciation of the name, best if you know how it is pronounced in it's native land, and then think about how someone might write that down if it were spoken to them.

Being a big Duke fan, I'm familiar with their Basketball Coaches surname "Krzyzewski". Just imaging how mangled that could be. But using the "pronunciation" rule, I would certainly look for the name Shashevski and similar spelling to that.

Where did your family live in the US over the last 200 years? Have you looked at census records to see what your ancestors listed as their nationality? Anything is possible, but I'm betting you're looking at French-Canadians or Americans who changed a foreign name to make it easier to spell correctly when they went to school.

I would be extremely skeptical of what you are saying. Names do NOT always come from one 'central' nation. They can be found in various places, often with no proof of the "first" person with the name.
I ran a quick survey of the nearly 10,000 entries of the name in rootsweb's family files. I immediately located at least one US line that was in PA, and the submitter shows the ancestor coming from Germany.
By trying to 'guess' the country it might have come from, the reliable way is always to work your ancestry back, using good documentation, until you find the immigrant ancestor. Now, determine that person's origin, instead of the origin of the surname. You might try working the files there at rootsweb, as you might find a relative who has already done the legwork for your line. Standard disclaimer.. it is important (critical) that you have some idea of what good documentation is, since many files online are simply copied from someone else's and no one bothered to verify the records. If the file includes notes/ sources, it is more likely to be 'good' .. but even one 'bad' conclusion can cause problems.

It souunds like your family anecdotes are suggesting a huguenot history, in which case they would be originally French. Huguenots fled to England and Holland, escaping persecution for their protestant beliefs.

Names did often change, particularly foriegn ones, as spellings and pronunciations were alien to the new country of residence. I have French huguenots in my tree who came to England c1560 named Dady, which we assume was originally D'adie or similar.

Huguenot immigration began in the 1560s and continued until 1764. I believe Holland and England were both active in providing refuge throughout this period (however, some early huguenots were from a Flemish corner of France, so may have always had the Dutch-influenced name)