Is "Lyman" a real German last name?

Question

If not, what was the original German spelling? I know my ancestors were from German Prussia...

danke!

Answer 1

Surname: Lyman

Recorded in the spellings of Layman, Leyman, Lyman, and possibly Leman, this surname is of pre 7th century Anglo-Saxon origin. It is topographical and describes a person who lived and worked a farm of meadows or grazing lands. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "leah", meaning a glade, plus "mann", a status title which implied the person responsible. Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. Early examples of the base surname include: Ailric de la Leie of Nottinghamshire in the year 1148 and Turgod de la Lea of Warwickshire in 1193, whilst Philip de Lye is recorded in Wiltshire in 1198. The addition of the suffix appears in the early 14th Century (see below), and these were particularly common in the county of Sussex at the beginning of the 14th Century, and to a lesser extent in the neighbouring counties of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hampshire. Examples of recordings include William Leyman in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1327, and later John Layman of Suffolk, in the Subsidy Rolls of that county in 1524. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Reiner Leman, and dated 1185 in the rolls of the Knights Templar for the county of Essex. This was during the reign of King Henry 11nd of England, known as "The church builder", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Answer 2

Any last name is "real".. but that does not make it a German name (or not German).  The person is who is or isn't German.

You need to know exactly who your ancestors were, and find explicit records on them, and who their parents/ relatives were. If you are in the US, and they were here prior to 1930, then the goal is to find them in the census records. What this will do, is verify who came over to the US and WHEN.  Once you have that.. then (depending on the time frame), you will look for immigration records, and also naturalization papers, if they became a citizen. Use those to try and narrow down their exact place of origin.. and again, this WILL depend on the time frame.  Most of Eastern Europe had boundaries that changed very frequently.  

Also.. keep an open mind as to any spelling. When looking in records.. the name won't always show up "correct" or not. The key point that you have to be concerned with, is if the records actually concern YOUR ancestor.