Leveson is a surname. The name as printed can represent two quite different etymologies and pronunciations: #A Leveson family who were

Merchants of the Staple The Company of Merchants of the Staple of England, the Merchants of the Staple, also known as the Merchant Staplers, is an English company incorporated by Royal Charter in 1319 (and so the oldest mercantile corporation in England) dealing in wool, ...

became very influential in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

in the late Middle Ages, supplying both lay support and clergy to

St Peter's Collegiate Church St Peter's Collegiate Church is located in central Wolverhampton, England. For many centuries it was a Chapel Royal, chapel royal and from 1480 a royal peculiar, independent of the Diocese of Lichfield and even the Province of Canterbury. The ...

. They were the ancestors of a number of important

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...

and

peers Peers may refer to: People * Donald Peers * Edgar Allison Peers, English academician * Gavin Peers * John Peers, Australian tennis player * Kerry Peers * Mark Peers * Michael Peers * Steve Peers * Teddy Peers (1886–1935), Welsh internationa ...

, in various branches, including the Leveson-Gowers. Their name could be rendered in numerous ways in the early modern period: Levison, Leweson, and Luson are all common. To modern readers, the latter represents the pronunciation most accurately. An example of its use is a letter to Robert Cecil, dated 5 August 1602, which reports that "eight of the galleys which fought with Sir Richard Luson were repaired."Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, 1-10 August 1602.
/ref> Leveson is an example of an English surname with counterintuitive pronunciation. The generally accepted pronunciation is . It is a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

from Louis or Lewis. #Leveson can also be a

from the Hebrew name

Levi Levi ( ; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron ...

, and so is most found among

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

families. This is generally pronounced as .

Notable people called Leveson

Surname

Arthur Leveson Admiral Sir Arthur Cavenagh Leveson GCB (27 January 1868 – 26 June 1929) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. He was the Rear Admiral Commanding His Majesty's Australian Fleet from 9 January 1917 to 3 September 1918 and later Commander in C ...

GCB (1868–1929), senior officer in the Royal Navy *

Brian Leveson Sir Brian Henry Leveson ( ; born 22 June 1949) is an English retired senior judge who is the current Investigatory Powers Commissioner, having previously served as the President of the Queen's Bench Division and Head of Criminal Justice. Lev ...

QC, (born 1949), English judge in the Court of Appeal and head of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales * Henry Astbury Leveson "The Old Shekarry" (1828–1875), big game hunter * Jack Leveson (1882–1949), Australian rugby league footballer * John Leveson (1555–1615), English politician * John Leveson (died 1613), son and heir of Sir John Leveson; died of the plague * Matthew Leveson (1986–2007), Australian murder victim *

Nancy Leveson Leveson in 2022 Nancy G. Leveson is an American specialist in system and software safety and a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States. Leveson gained her degrees (in computer scie ...

, leading American expert in system and software safety * Richard Leveson (disambiguation), multiple people * Walter Leveson (1550–1602), English politician and landowner * William Leveson (died 1621), English mercer

Given name

* Leveson Randolph (1824–1876), English cricketer and clergyman * Leveson Somerset (1829–1900), British Royal Navy officer

References

{{surname Patronymic surnames Surnames of Jewish origin Yiddish-language surnames

Notable people called Leveson

Surname

Given name

See also

References