Lenfant

Lenfant is a surname of French origin. It appears to be a variant of L'Enfant, formed from the French noun enfant, meaning "child." In many medieval and early modern contexts, surnames derived from common nouns originated as nicknames or identifiers for a family or individual; Lenfant may reflect such a derivation and may have arisen through spelling standardization or regional pronunciation shifts.

The surname is found in France and in French-speaking communities abroad. Historical records show its appearance in civil registries and parish documents from the early modern period onward. Due to migration, Lenfant and its variants are now established in Canada (notably Quebec), Belgium, Switzerland, and among Francophone populations in other countries.

Related forms include L'Enfant, incorporating the apostrophe and reflecting the same root. Notable bearers of the closely related surname include Pierre L'Enfant (1754–1825), a French-born American architect who planned the early layout of Washington, D.C. Lenfant, as a surname in its own right, has been borne by various individuals across different domains but does not point to a single prominent figure in widely known historical records.