A male name. Latin Laurentius ‘of Laurentium’, the name of a city, probably ultimately derived from laurus ‘a bay tree’. St Laurence the Deacon, martyred in Rome in 258, was a favourite saint in the Middle Ages, and there are 237 churches dedicated to him in England. Laurence occurs in England only as a monk’s name before the Norman Conquest, and there is only one Laurentius in Domesday Book, but it soon became common and there are a great many surnames derived from it, e.g. Lawrence, Laurence, Lawrenson, Lawrie, Laurie, Lowrie, Lawson (from the nickname Law), Larry, Larkin. Laurence has been very popular in Ireland since the time of St Laurence O’Toole (1130-80), Archbishop of Dublin, whose real, name was the Irish Lorcan. Larry and Lanty are the usual Irish nicknames; Laurie is Scottish.

Laurentius Domesday Book 1086. Laurencius Curia Regis Rolls 1197, 1213-15, Feudal Aids 1364. Laurence Hundred Rolls 1273. Larance Visitation of Yorkshire 1563, Church Registers of St. Mary Aldermary, 1558-1754 1603. Law jrks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

Occasionally LAWRENCE. Immediately from Latin Laurentius, probably from laurus, ‘the laurel,’ itself not improbably from the lares, ‘the good spirits of dead ancestors watching over a household,’ from Etruscan lar or lars, ‘a lord or master.’ Laurentius became a name of great note and the object of Christians’ affection because of ‘the gentle Roman deacon who, (in) 258, showed “the poor and the maimed, the halt and the blind”, as the treasures of the Church, and was... roasted over a fire... Constantine built a church on his tomb, and seven other churches at Rome are likewise dedicated to him’ (Yonge). There are eight other Saints Laurence (Benedictines). For some obscure reason—but almost certainly nothing to do with any saint so named—Laurence (or Lawrence) has become typical of sloth, esp. inlazy Laurence or lazy as Laurence mainly in dialect (Apperson).

LAWRENCE. From the Latin name Laurentius, formed from laureo, to crown with a laurel. Conf. Laurentia, foster-mother of Romulus and Remus.

Latin (masculine) - fig. Crowned with laurel.

A Gaelic name: Labhruinn, Middle Gaelic Labhran (1467), Irish Laurint (Saint), from Latin Laurentius, St Laurence, the ultimate stem being that of Latin laurus, a laurel. Hence M‘Labhruinn, or Mac-laren.