Whats in a Name?

E.B Livingston's argument that Leving was of Saxon origin is based on linguistics. He notes that the name -or a similar name- was very commonly borne by Anglo-Saxons of rank: 

The surname of the Scottish family of Livingston, originally de Levingstoun, is of territorial origin, and is derived from the lands of Levings-tun or Levings-toun in West Lothian, now the village of Livingston, Linlithgowshire, so that the correct spelling of the family surname is Livingston, the modern rendering of Levingstoun, and not Livingstone; the final 'e' being a subsequent

addition which alters the whole meaning of the name, which signifies the “toun'or dwelling-place of Leving, who owned these lands in the early part of the twelfth century. This Leving or Living, whose name in the contemporary monkish Latin charters is written Levingus, was undoubtedly of Saxon lineage, for in England long before the Norman Conquest the patronymic Leving, Living, or Lyfing, derived from Leofing, which in modern English means the son of Leof’-namely 'son of the Beloved ' was borne by numerous persons of rank and position as their family or tribal name.

Defenders of the highlander theory also turn to linguistics. This- for example- from The Livingston/MacLea Surname DNA Project website: 

Some believe that Leving was an Anglo-Saxon... but the sound "Levin" can be a name in many languages, and more traditionally it was believed that Levingus had Gaelic Highland roots in the Clan Donn Sleibhe (Don Levy, MacOnlea or MacLea). A diminutive form of the personal name Donn Sleibhe (brown of the hill), is "Leibhin", pronounced "levin", thus "Leibhin's Town". The Gaelic name of Livingston now is "Baile Dhun Leibhe" (the town of Dunlevin) and many members of the clan Maclea eventually took the surname Livingstone up, as if it were an English translation of their Gaelic name.

It is said that both lowland and highland families believed there was a link between them until well into the 18th century... 

But if linguistics be our guide, both the case for Leving's Saxon origin, and the case for his Gaelic origin, collapse under close scrutiny... As The Livingston DNA Project rightly points out, "Levin" is found in many languages. One of these languages is English, another is Gaelic, but still another French. The following variants of Levin occur on the Battle Abbey Rolls (purportedly a list of the elite Norman invaders who fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings): Loveyne, Lovein, Lovan, Leuuin, Lieuvin. Any one of these names could be hiding in the latin "Levingus". Moreover, Lieuvin was actually a region in Normandy at the time of the invasion. Below is a map of the old Frankish administrative districts in 9th century Normandy:

Adding substance to the case for Leving's Norman origin is the fact that Leving's sons all had Norman names. His eldest son and heir was named "Thurstan: the name Turstani filii Levingi (Thurstan Levingsson) is on the document gifting the church in Leving's town to the Abbey of Holyrood. Thurston is a village in Suffolk, but the name—from the Old Norse Þórr (Thor) and steinn (stone, rock)—is a Norman name. E.B. Livingston speculates that Thustan Levingsson was named after Thurstan the Archbishop of York, who was born in Bayeux, in the Bessin region of Normandy. Leving's other sons -Hugh, and Germanus or German—also had Norman names: Hugh was the name of Hugh or Hugues Capet, King of the Franks from 987-996, and it was brought to Britain by the Normans, and Germanus was the name of a Christian saint most venerated in Normandy.

Let's put these linguistic considerations in their historical context:  

• in 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy, invades England
• he confiscates lands and titles from the Anglo-Saxon elite and gives them to his "barons", members of his own family, and those who were close companions in the Battle of Hastings  
• William invades Scotland in 1072, Scottish King Malcolm III submits, and the Normans go in, building castles and founding noble families. Lowland Scottish families with names such Bruce, Gray, Ramsay, Fraser, Rose, Ogilvie, Montgomery, Sinclair, Pollock, Burnard, Douglas, Gordon... and so on can all be traced back to the Normans. The founder of the royal House of Stewart, with whom the Livingstons were closely allied, was a Norman
• circa 1128 a man with a substantial amount of property on the lowlands of Scotland is on record as having donated the church of his town to the newly founded Abbey of Holyrood
• he bears a name (Leving) that sounds very like names that appear on lists of those who fought with William in the Battle of Hastings (Loveyne, Lovein, Lovan, Leuuin, Lieuvin) and like a region of Normandy (Lieuvin)
• this man gives his sons the Norman names Thurstan, Hugh, and Germanus/German

In the light of this combination of facts, it is difficult not to conclude that this man—the founder of the lowland Livingston dynasty—was a Norman rather than a Saxon, a Gael, a Fleming, a Hungarian or anything else. Even the old legend that the first Livingston was a "Baron de Leving" is explained. By the size of his estate, by the presence of Leving-like names on the Battle Abbey Rolls, by the 60 year gap between 1066 and 1128, it is probable that his father was one of the elite soldiers who fought with William in the Battle of Hastings and was subsequently rewarded with extensive lands in Scotland.