What is "lefebvre"

Lefebvre is a common northern French surname. It is also spelled Lefèvre and is used in the related forms Lefeuvre (Western France) and Lefébure (North, Normandy).

In the Occitan and Arpitan extension area, the variation is Fabre, Favre, Faure, Favret, Favrette or Dufaure and in Corsica Fabri (cf. Italian Fabbri, Fabri). In Celtic speaking Britanny, the name is Le Goff(ic), with the article LE to translate Breton AR.

For Anglophone pronunciation purposes, the name has evolved, especially in the United States and Anglophone regions of Canada mainly by Acadians, among whom it is also a common surname, to LaFave, LeFave, Lefever and Lafevre, as well as other variant spellings. The English surname Feaver is also derived from Lefebvre.

The name derives from faber, the Latin word for "craftsman", "worker" used in Late Latin in Gaul to mean smith. Many northern French surnames (especially in Normandy) are used with the definite masculine article as a prefix (Lefebvre, Lefèvre; archaic spellings are Le Febvre), with the partitive article as a prefix (Dufaure) in the south of France, or without article/prefix (Favre, Faure) in the south of France, but the meaning is the same.

It may refer to:

• Alain Lefebvre (born 1947), French journalist
• André Lefèbvre (1894–1964), French automobile engineer
• Arlette Lefebvre (born 1947), Canadian child psychologist
• Arthur H. Lefebvre (1923–2003), research engineer and scientist
• Bill Lefebvre (1915–2007), American baseball player, coach, and scout
• Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes (1773–1822), French general
• Charles-Édouard Lefebvre (1843–1917), French composer
• Claude Lefebvre (artist) (1633–1675), French painter and engraver
• Claude Lefebvre (handballer) (born 1952), former Canadian handball player who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics
• Claude Lefebvre (ice hockey) (born 1964), Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint's founder
• Edmond Lefebvre du Prey (1866–1955), French politician
• Elsie Lefebvre (born 1979), Quebec politician
• Émile Lefebvre, French playwright
• Eugène Lefebvre (1878–1909), French aviator, and the second person to be killed in airplane crash.
• François Joseph Lefebvre (1755–1820), French marshal during Napoleonic Wars, Duke of Gdańsk
• Georges Lefebvre (1874–1959), French historian
• Germaine Lefebvre (1933–1990), French actress professionally known as Capucine
• Guillaume Lefebvre (born 1981), Canadian ice hockey player
• Gustave Lefebvre (1879–1957), French Egyptologist
• Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991), French philosopher, sociologist, and intellectual
• Hippolyte-Jules Lefèbvre (1863–1935), French sculptor
• Jean Lefebvre (1922–2004), French actor
• Jean Baptiste Lefebvre de Villebrune (1732-1809), French physician, philologist, and translator
• Jim Lefebvre (born 1942), American baseball player
• Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), French painter
• Kristine Lefebvre, American lawyer and contestant on The Apprentice
• Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre (1751–1821), French actress, dancer, and singer
• Marcel Lefebvre (1905–1991), excommunicated French Catholic archbishop
• René Lefebvre (1879–1944), French factory-owner, active in the French Resistance
• Roland Lefebvre (born 1963), Dutch cricket player
• Sébastien Lefebvre, French-Canadian musician
• Sylvain Lefebvre (born 1967), Canadian ice hockey player
• Vladimir Lefebvre, American mathematician