# Lessing (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/lessing/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from German.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 627 |
| US rank (2010) | 35,812 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 492,417 people |
| Change since 2000 | +8.9% (576 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a German surname, borrowed from German Lessing, a variant of Lessig. * As a Lower Sorbian surname, from lesník (“forester”). Compare Lesnik.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Lessing in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 92% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.1% |
| Two or more races | 2.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Lessing in Austria.

## People named Lessing

- Erich Lessing, Austrian photographer (1923-2018)

## Similar surnames

Lesniak, Lesnik, Lagunas, Lachance, Loggins, Lykins, Liggins, Lukens, Likens, Lajeunesse, Leszczynski, Lagunes.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.