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Lemieux is a French surname traced from its 13th-century origins on the Cotentin peninsula of northwest France to 1600's Rouen, the capital region of Normandy.
Mieux, Le Mieux, Lemew, Lemieu, Best, Betters, Lamere, Lamew, Lemedec, Lemieur, Lemoeux, Lemuel, Lemuiex, Lemiez, Lemieuxx, Lemeux are some of the many ways that the Lemieux name has been localized, anglicised, or phonetically simplified.
The oldest record of the Lemieux name is from the Cotentin region of France in Normandy and is attributed to Pierre Lemieux, a 13th-century brandy merchant. In a 1984 speech given by Jacques Lemieux at the Lemieux family reunion at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, Jacque states that the Lemieux name may have its origin in the brewery craft as Lemieux is a word associated with "honey" and it was with honey that "hydromel" was made. Hydromel, derived from the Greek hydromeli, literally means "water-honey" and is the French word for mead.
Archival documents describe the Lemieux lands as being located near the village of Cantaloup, "the place where the wolf sings," a region of mature oak forests that was governed by the military-religious order of St. John of Jerusalem. Near Canteloup, there is a hamlet called Es Mieux and land and a farm called La Mieuserie, which dates back to the beginning of the l4th century. Es Mieux meaning "better" and La Mieuserie meaning "the goodness."