Leiner Family History

Jewish (western Ashkenazic): name taken by someone who was good at chanting the Pentateuch at public worship in the synagogue or who regularly did so from West Yiddish layner ‘reader’ (a derivative of West Yiddish laynen ‘to read’ which comes ultimately from Latin legere ‘to read’).

Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a flax grower or merchant from German Lein ‘flax’ + agent suffix -er.

German: habitational name for someone from any of the places called Leina or Leinau.

German: derivative of Lein.

German: in some cases an occupational name from Middle High German līner ‘rider on a towpath along a ship-canal’.