Aimery was born before 1155. He was the fifth son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and his wife, Burgundia of Rancon. His family had been noted for generations of crusaders in their native Poitou. His great-grandfather, Hugh VI of Lusignan, died in the Battle of Ramla in 1102; Aimery's grandfather, Hugh VII of Lusignan, took part in the Second Crusade. Aimery's father also came to the Holy Land and died in a Muslim prison in the 1160s. Earlier scholarship erroneously referred to him as Amalric (or Amaury, its French form), but evidences from documentaries shows he was actually called "Aimericus", which is a distinct name (although it was sometimes confused with "Amalricus" already in the Middle Ages). Runciman and other modern historians erroneously refer to him as Amalric II of Jerusalem, because they confused his name with that of Amalric "I" of Jerusalem.