Girl or boy · Latin
Laurence
Say it: LOR-unss
Meaning
From Latin Laurentius 'of Laurentum', a town near Rome.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Common in medieval England through Saint Laurence, giving surnames like Lawson.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1910s
In the United States
- 39,848 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1913, about 1 in 1,600 boys
- 77 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Lawrence, Lorens
| Latin | Laurentius |
|---|---|
| French | Laurent |
| Italian | Lorenzo |
| Spanish | Lorenzo |
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- Calendars of saints and name days
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.