Laing
A Scottish surname that usually began as a nickname for a tall or long person.
The #5,383 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,756 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Laing is generally explained from the Scots word for “long,” ultimately from Old English lang. In that sense, it would originally have been a nickname for someone of unusual height or length of build. Some 19th-century writers treat it simply as a Scottish dialect form of long, and later surname dictionaries follow that explanation.
History
The name is especially associated with Scotland, where it appears as a familiar Scots surname and a close variant of Lang. It is also found in Irish surname lists, sometimes alongside Lang and Layng, reflecting overlap and anglicization between Scots and Irish naming forms. Because the same sound-spelling pattern can also occur in different local traditions, some bearers may have unrelated family lines.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root behind Laing is also behind the common English word long.
From the historical record
“equivalent perhaps to Granger, which see. LAING. A-Sax. lang., long ; applied to a tall person. LAIMSON. The sou of Alain or Alan. LAIRD. The Scottish form of Lord. ^p° LAKE. A termination of many names of places and families, as Kerslake, Shiplake, Aslake, Timberlake, West- lake, Eastlake. Probably not from lacus…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom