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Surname Etymology and Meaning of LAWLESS

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

"Lah-lios." Gaelic, Lagh, law, order, and lios, a court, a hall, a fortress, a place where law is administered. Lau, Cor. Br., praise, and lis, a court. Lawless, an outlaw.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

Scottish, Irish, and English: nickname for an unbridled and licentious man, from Middle English laghless, lawelas (a compound of late Old English lagu ‘law’ (from Old Norse) + the native suffix -l(e)as ‘without’, ‘lacking’). Reaney suggests additionally that this name may have referred to an outlaw (i.e. one from whom the protection of the law had been withdrawn), but this seems unlikely.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)