Lawrence
- Pronunciation
- [La-wrence]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- A Modern English Form Of Laurence And The Preferred Form In America.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Lawrence
Lawrence descends from the Latin Laurentius meaning "from Laurentum" — referring to the ancient city of Laurentum in Latium (central Italy), so named for its laurel trees. The name has been used continuously across English-speaking Catholic naming traditions for over a millennium, anchored by Saint Lawrence of Rome (c. 225–258 CE), the iconic early Christian deacon who was martyred under Emperor Valerian by being roasted alive on a gridiron — making him one of the foundational figures of Catholic martyrology.
Notable bearers include the iconic British military leader Thomas Edward Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia," 1888–1935, the iconic British army officer and writer whose iconic role in the Arab Revolt during World War I anchored the name in early-20th-century British memory); American boxer Lawrence "Larry" Holmes (born 1949, the iconic American heavyweight boxing champion); American actor Lawrence Olivier (1907–1989, the iconic British actor); and the contemporary American basketball player Trevor Lawrence (using Lawrence as a surname).
Lawrence held a US top-25 boys' rank from 1880 through 1955 — over seven decades of consistent American popularity, peaking around 1925 at #20 in the United States. The name has receded since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 boys' rank. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Catholic-saint-British pedigree combined with two firm syllables — the in-built Saint Lawrence martyrology religious anchor, the strong Lawrence of Arabia cultural anchor, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. The name reads as both classical-Catholic and contemporary American. Common nicknames Larry (the dominant warm short form, casual and adult — also a popular standalone name on its own), Lar, Lon, Lonnie, and the rare Renz each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Lawrence, Laurence (the historical British spelling), Larrence, and Laurens have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Lorenzo (Italian/Spanish), Laurent (French), Laurens (Dutch), Lorencs (Latvian), Lőrinc (Hungarian), and the original Latin Laurentius.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lawrence
US Popularity History (1880–2025)
Annual US births named Lawrence by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1952 with 10,302 boys named Lawrence (boy rank #35 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #520 for boys (578 US births). That's 485 places below its 1952 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Lawrence Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Lawrence the strongest states are District of Columbia, Maine, New Mexico.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | #217 | 29 |
| 2 | Maine | #258 | 15 |
| 3 | New Mexico | #353 | 49 |
| 4 | Michigan | #420 | 193 |
| 5 | Nebraska | #427 | 29 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | #428 | 118 |
| 7 | Connecticut | #432 | 41 |
| 8 | Kansas | #446 | 74 |
| 9 | Nevada | #473 | 44 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #478 | 102 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lawrence in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Larry | Laurel | Male | Dutch |
| Lars | Laurel | Male | Danish |
| Lauren | Laurel | Female | French |
| Laurence | From The Place Of Laurel Trees. | Male | English |
| Laurent | From The Place Of The Laurel Trees. | Male | French |
| Laurenz | From The Place Of The Laurel Trees. | Male | German |
| Laurie | The Laurel Tree Or Sweet Bay Tree Symbolic Of Honor And Victory. Old Name With Many Variants. | Female | English |
| Lenci | Light | Female | Hungarian |
| Lon | Fierce | Male | Gaelic |
| Lorance | Modern Usage. From The Place Of The Laurel Trees. | Male | English |
| Lorant | Victory | Male | Hungarian |
| Loren | Form Of Lorenzo And Lawrence. | Male | English |
| Lorence | Modern Usage. From The Place Of The Laurel Trees. | Male | English |
| Lorencz | Hungarian Form Of Lawrence (Laurel) | Male | Hungarian |
| Lorenz | Laurel | Male | German |
| Lorenzo | Form Of Lawrence. Lorenzo De' Medici Was A Patron Of Michaelangelo And Da Vinci. | Male | Spanish |
| Lorin | Variant Of Lawrence Meaning From Laurentium. | Female | French |
| Loritz | Laurel | Male | German |
Famous People Named Lawrence
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Lawrence.
- Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the foremost classical painters of his time.
- Lawrence Welk — TV Show Host (1903)
Looking for names like Lawrence?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Lawrence to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lawrence against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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