I think you are confusing two German/Yiddish words here.

"Lieb", pronounced leehb, is >from the same root as the English "love", while
"Leib" (note the spelling, also "loeb" etc.), pronounced lahyb, is >from the word
for "lion". The first occurs in names such as GOTTLIEB, or LIEBESKIND (or
LIEBMAN), which could be connected to "Baruch" (hebrew for "blessed"), while
the second was often used in association with the name Judah (often in
combinations of Judah/Arye/Leib), because of the biblical verse comparing the
tribe of Judah to a lion.

I think the similarities between "leib" and "levi" might have led people to
connect the two, but I would not automatically assume that any given "Leib" was
a levite.

While the connection between LIEBMAN and LIPPMANN is phonetically plausible,
LIPPMANN sounds suspiciously like an occupational name, but I wouldn't know
exactly what they did, and you would have to do more research into 18th century
middle franconia to find out.


....... Tom Klein, Toronto