About the de Lacy's,   are you one?

​The de Lacy name is derived from a noble Norman family whose origins can be traced  here on our   The Origins website page

Once translated from Norse, Latin, and Norman/French, the English version became de Lacy. The ‘de’ translates to 'from' and was used by Norman noble families to add high noble status to the name. 
Early deeds and documents were hand-written by scribes and monks, each with their own spelling version. It was not till the early 1700s that the first dictionaries started to emerge.
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Click or tap for English-language spelling reform

Over the centuries. de Lacy has taken on many versions of spellings D (upper case). In true Irish thinking, it is not wrong either, nor is Lacy, Lacey, Leacy, and Lassi.

Lacy or Lacey? There are two probable reasons why the 'e' appeared. The de Lacy family was an active Catholic family at the time of the Reformation, and for centuries after, the name 'Lacy' marked them as Catholic and persecuted. Some Lacy families added the 'e' to show they were no longer Catholic. History has no bearing on present-day faiths.
​The second reason arises from the growth of record keeping since the 1700s. I call it 'the 'whatever reason’. Anybody with the surname Lacy will tell you they spend their life telling or correcting others, "There is no e in my name". Inevitably, over time, some will have said 'whatever' and settled for Lacey.
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The Latin name de Laci derives from the area of Lassy in Calvados Normandy. It later became de Lacy when transferred to English in the 1700s. ​If you can trace your family de Lacy name back to the 1800s, then the probability is that your forebears came from around Lassy in the eleventh or twelfth century. When the two brothers, Ilbert and Walter de Lacy, arrived in England.
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They were accompanied by family cousins who held estates under a grant from Lord Hugh de Lassi. Once William, the conqueror, had been crowned King of England, he elevated both de Lacy brothers to the title of Baron, granting both vast estates within which roles and employment were found for de Lacy relatives.

Both Baron Ilbert de Lacy, Lord of Pontefract, and Baron Walter de Lacy, Lord of Weobley, now had the power to create under lords known as a Knights fief from within their ranks. Many were made from their own de Lacy cousins who had followed them from Normandy. Tap or click on the Knight on the picture to read how important a Knight was to his overlord.
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Tap or click to learn about A Knights fief

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