National Lane Day – October 20, 2024

History of National Lane Day

The surname Lane has English, French, and Irish ancestry. It also has three unique probable origins. It could’ve been derived from the Old English word ‘lanu.’ The most likely original connotation was a narrow pathway between fences or hedges. It was later extended to refer to any short corridor, even one between buildings in a town. Lane may have alternatively been adopted after the Invasion of 1066 as an occupational name for a wool worker, derived from the Old French word ‘laine’ meaning ‘wool.’

It also could have come from an Anglicized variant of two Gaelic Irish surnames: ‘O’Laighin,’ which means ‘spear descendent,’ and ‘O’Luain,’ which means ‘warrior descendant.’ Irish surnames are frequently prefixed by “O,” which means grandson or male descendent of, or ‘Mac,’ which means ‘son of,’ and are derived from the chiefs of tribes, renowned elders, or some illustrious warrior.

Recorded spellings come in many forms, such as Loan, Lane, Lain, and Layne. The first documented spelling of the surname was that of Ralph de la Lane, who was mentioned in the “Pipe Rolls of Kent” in 1176, during the reign of King Henry II, who reigned from 1154 to 1189. The names Osbertus in Lane of the county of Surrey in 1212, Adam Ithelane of Bedfordshire in 1227, and Nicholas atte Lone of Worcestershire in 1275 are examples of early recordings of the surname derived from the Old English ‘lanu.’