Lesser
A surname that may come from a word meaning “smaller” or “younger,” though its exact origin is not certain.
The #8,885 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 83,762 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is likely descriptive, built on a word meaning “lesser,” “smaller,” or “younger.” In English it could have arisen as a nickname for a smaller person or the younger of two people with the same name; similar forms also exist in German and French. The historical material does not give a single agreed derivation, so the name may have developed independently in more than one language area.
History
The surname appears in English-language surname lists by the 19th century, where it is treated alongside other names that refer to size or rank. It is also recorded in French surname material, suggesting that some bearers may descend from continental or anglicized forms rather than a single English source. In modern use it remains relatively uncommon in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname writers often grouped Lesser with names like Little, Short, and Small as part of a whole family of “size” surnames.
From the historical record
“struggle, to use the technical terms of the time, of the * greater folk ' against the • lesser folk,' or of the 'commune/ the general mass of the inhabitants, against the * prud- hommes/ or * wiser' few, which brought about . . . the great civic revolution of the 13th and 14th”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)