Where the Last Name Lee origins?

Question

As question? Maybe a Chinese? He is my teacher, just curious....

Answer 1

Old English from Old German, meaning "shelter". Think of "leeward" and "leeway". :

"lee :"
"O.E. hleo "shelter," from P.Gmc. *khlewo- (cf. O.N. hle, Dan. læ, Du. lij "lee, shelter"); no known cognates outside Gmc.; original sense uncertain and may have been "warm" (cf. Ger. lau "tepid," O.N. hly "shelter, warmth"). Leeward is 1666, "situated away from the wind," opposite of the weather side of the ship; leeway (1669) is sideways drift of a ship caused by wind."

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=lee&searchmode=none

In China, the name is normally transcribed as "Li".

"Li, Lee or Ly is a common transliteration of several Chinese family names, including that of 李 (pinyin Lǐ), the most common Chinese family name, and other less common surnames such as 黎 (Lí); 理 and 里 (both pronounced as Lǐ); 郦, (酈), 栗, 厉, (厲), and 利 (all pronounced as Lì). Calligraphically, Li (李) is the same character as "plum", and is made up of the character for "son" beneath that of "wood"."

"The spelling "Li" is derived from the People's Republic of China's pinyin system and is therefore the romanization used most widely in China. However, the anglicised spelling "Lee" is more commonly used when rendering these surnames in Roman letters in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and many overseas Chinese communities."

"As of 2002, there were approximately 103 million people, or 7.9 percent of the population, in China with this surname, and 108 million worldwide. It remains the world's most common surname. The Korean family name Lee and the Vietnamese family name Lý derive from the Chinese name."

"The surname Li (黎) is more common in Central China, South China (including Hong Kong, where it is transliterated as "Lai" from Cantonese), and is one of the four most common surnames among ethnic Vietnamese, which in the Vietnamese language is "Lê." "

"In Indonesia, the surname may be spelt "Lie." "

"Li (surname)" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_(surname)