Lefèvre & Murphy
Lefebvre (French: [ləfɛvʁ] ; commonly in English-speaking countries, as well as or ) is a common northern French surname. Alternative forms include Lefebvre, le Febvre, Le Febvre, Lefèbvre, le Fèbvre, Le Fèbvre, as well as the common variant Lefèvre (le Fèvre, Le Fèvre; anglicized Lefevre, le Fevre, Le Fevre, LeFevre, LeFever). Dialectal variants include Lefevere (Belgium), Lefebre, Lefeuvre (western France), and Lefébure (northern France and Normandy).
The name derives from faber, the Latin word for "craftsman", "worker"; used in Late Latin in Gaul to mean smith. In the Occitan and Arpitan extension area, the variation is Fabre, Favre, Faure, Favret, Favrette or Dufaure and in Corsica Fabri (cf. Italian Fabbri, Fabri). In Celtic-speaking Brittany, the corresponding name is Le Goff(ic), with the article le to translate Breton ar. Many northern French surnames (especially in Normandy) are used with the definite masculine article as a prefix (Lefebvre, Lefèvre; a more archaic spelling is Le Febvre), with the contracted masculine article as a prefix (Dufaure) in the south of France, or without article/prefix (Favre, Faure) in the south of France, but the meaning is the same.
For Anglophone purposes, the name has evolved, especially in the United States and Anglophone regions of Canada—mainly by Acadians, among whom it is also a common surname, yielding not only Lefevre and LeFever, but also Lafevre, Lafever, Lefavre, LeFave, LaFave, as well as other variant spellings. The English surname Feaver is also derived from Lefebvre.
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