LaFave
A French surname usually understood as a contracted form of a name built on Old French words for a road or way.
The #8,558 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,214 Americans shares it.
Etymology
LaFave is generally treated as a French surname, with the leading element la meaning “the” and the second element likely related to Old French voie/voye, “way, road,” though the exact historical form is not always clear in later records. In this type of surname, the article became attached to the name as a single unit over time. The name therefore likely began as a topographic or locational label for someone associated with a road, route, or place by that name.
History
The surname is found in French-speaking areas and later in North America, especially among families of French or French-Canadian background. In American records it often appears with the capitalized internal form LaFave, reflecting the attached French article. Because the early spelling history is uneven, some family lines may show related variant forms.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Names with attached French articles such as La-, Le-, and De- often changed spelling when families moved into English-speaking records, which is why modern forms can look more fixed than their older ancestors.