Love History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Love

What does the name Love mean?

Love is a name that dates far back into the mists of early British history to the days of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. It is derived from an Old English personal name Lufu which affectionately referred to Love. In this case, the name was a “personal name and pet name [Middle English love, luf(e), Old English lufu, from, love]. Lufu was an A.-Saxon fem. name.” 1

The surname Love was adopted in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. After the Norman Conquest, the Old English naming system gradually dissolved. Old English names became less common and were replaced by popular continental European names. The earliest surnames in England were found shortly after the Norman Conquest and are of Norman French rather than native English origins.

However, two other sources disagree with this generally accepted noting “this name relates not to the tender passion, but is an old modification of the French Loup, wolf.” 2 3

Early Origins of the Love family

The surname Love was first found in Oxfordshire, where one of the first records of the family was listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 as a forename as in Love del Hok. The same rolls lists Alan le Love and Walter Love in Cambridgeshire. 4

Another source claims “Love is an ancient Kentish surname. Reginald Love held property around Chatham and Rochester in the reign of Henry V. The Loves have long been an old Staplehurst [, Kent] family of gentry; a hundred years since there were several inscriptions to this family, some of them obliterated, in the church and churchyard.” 5

Up in Scotland, early records there revealed Thomas Lufe who appeared as witness in Glasgow, 1472, and Yhone Luyif was a tenant in the barony of Glasgow, 1521. William Lufe and Ranald Lufe were rebels at the horn in 1534, and John Lufe rendered to Exchequer the accounts of the bailies of the burgh of Renfrew in 1567. 6