Lombard

Recorded in several forms including Lombard, Limbart., Limbert, Lumbard, (British and Irish), Lombart, Lombardi, Lombardo (Italian), Lombardet, Lombardy (French), Lombardo (Spain), and others, this is a surname which perhaps surprisingly, is of Germanic origins, of which it has two. The first is locational, and describes a person from Lombardy. This province within Italy, was from the 5th century a.d. peopled by a Gaulish tribe called the 'Langobardi' who arrived from Northern Germany and drove out the then occupants of the area. The second possible origin is status occupational, and in medieval times described a banker or money-lender. It would seem that early Italian merchants to Britain in those far off times were famed for their financial dealings, and hence the word 'lombard' became the standard term for anyone concerned with finance, and paradoxically not necessarily of 'Italian' origins. The surname was also an early arrival in Ireland, and it is said that several Lombards became mayors of the city of Cork from the mid14th century. Over the centuries the surname in its various spellings has also been confused with the similar Lambert, which itself is of Germanic origins.