This interesting and unusual name, recorded in London church registers under the variant spellings Leyland, Layland, Lelande, Le land etc., from the late 16th Century, has two distinct possible origins. Firstly, it may be of English topographic origin from residence by a patch of uncultivated land. The derivation, in this case, is from the old English pre 7th Century "Laegeland" i.e. "land left lying uncultivated", with Aldulf de Leilande, witness, in the 1203 "Fine Court Rolls of Kent" being the first recorded namebearer from this source, Leyland, (Lancashire), recorded as Lailand in the Domesday Book of 1086 was named with the above word. The name may also be of French topographical origin for someone who lived in a grove, deriving from the Norse "lundr" through the old Norman French "lund(e)", a grove. In December 1578 one, Guillardini Lelonde was christened in St. Margarets, Westminster, and on April 19th 1693 Jean Pierre La Lande was christened in the French Huguenot Church, Threadneedle Street. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Frances Lalonde, (marriage to Samuel De Crouy), which was dated August 1st 1714, at St. Martin, Outwich, London, during the reign of Queen Anne, known as "The Last Stuart Monarch", 1702 - 1714. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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