Lambert Family History

English, French, Walloon, Dutch, German, Polish, Czech, and Slovak: from a personal name composed of the ancient Germanic elements land ‘land territory’ + berht ‘bright famous’. In England, the native Old English form Landbeorht was replaced by Lambert, the Continental form of the name that was taken to England by the Normans from France.

The name gained wider currency in Britain in the Middle Ages with the immigration of weavers from Flanders, among whom Saint Lambert or Lamprecht, bishop of Maastricht in around 700, was a popular cult figure. In Italy, the name was popularized in the Middle Ages as a result of the fame of Lambert I and II, Dukes of Spoleto and Holy Roman Emperors.

Lambert is the second most frequent surname in Wallonia. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, for example Slovenian Lampret and Lampreht (see also Lampert).