"Le" in French family names

Question

What is the origin of (p)article "le" in some of French family names (Lelaure, Lelandais, Leclerc)?

As far as I understand, "de" in family names usually originates from the name of a territory owned by a noble family (de Gaulle, Defay, de Ligonnès), arising from a genitive construction (X de Y), meaning that the person came from this territory or owns it - as we would say "Elisabeth of England" or "Nicholas of Russia". Does "le" have similar origin? What does it mean exactly then?

A related question: is it true that joint or separate spelling is characteristic of specific geographic regions (like de Fay vs. Defay)?

Answer 1

Family names haven't always existed. They began to be fixed during the Middle-Ages. Before people were designated in accordance to a moral trait (Le Petit, Le Gentil, Le Doux ...) a physical characteristic (Le Brun, Le Noir, Le Gros ...), their trade (Le Charpentier, Le Boulanger, Le Clerc ...), or their place of dwelling or birth origin (Le Landais, Le Bois/Du Dois, L'Anglais, Le Breton ...).

Family names originate from this way of naming people and le here is just the definite article attached to the noun. The fact that le is attached to the noun is not specific to a family name having a geographical origin.

Le bon usage mentions this (§236, 10th edition). A more detailed article can be found on Ça m'intéresse.

For anyone who is interested in a historic approach I've found this academic paper Le patronyme : Histoire, anthropologie, société ¹, it goes far beyond the question. Here's an extract related to the question:

Les formes utilisant articles et prépositions disparaissent progressivement : en 1340, elles concernent 60 % de mentions, 50 % en 1410, 10 % en 1470. Le surnom reste longtemps soumis aux règles grammaticales du « nom commun », signalant quelqu’un de tel lieu, exerçant tel métier, affublé de telle caractéristique morale ou physique ; c’est seulement à la fin du Moyen Âge qu’il s’en émancipe et devient « nom propre ».

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^{1 ZEI, Gianna (dir.) ; DARLU, Pierre (dir.) ; et BRUNET, Guy (dir.). Le patronyme : Histoire, anthropologie, société. Nouvelle édition [en ligne]. Paris : CNRS Éditions, 2001.}