The history of your name

The LAWRENCE surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 124,321 219 0.046 461
United States (1880 census) 25,577 198 0.051 512
Change since 1880 +98744 -21 -0.005 -51
Other Countries
Australia 7,977 156 0.049 488
United Kingdom 35,223 132 0.077 767
Top States for LAWRENCE by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
California 9,359 332 0.028 276
Florida 8,356 193 0.052 523
New York 8,318 145 0.044 438
Texas 7,557 326 0.036 362
Pennsylvania 5,136 198 0.042 418
Top States for LAWRENCE by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Vermont 646 65 0.106 1,061
Maine 931 232 0.073 730
Alabama 3,213 194 0.072 722
Arkansas 1,930 155 0.072 722
New Hampshire 775 171 0.063 627

Notes

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called LAWRENCE live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called LAWRENCE represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called LAWRENCE in California than any other state, but you are more likely to find a LAWRENCE by picking someone at random in Vermont than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of LAWRENCE

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From given name or forename

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the LAWRENCE surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the LAWRENCE surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of LAWRENCE in the USA

Classification Total Percent
Asian/Pacific 721 0.58
White (Caucasian) 89,424 71.93
Black/African American 28,743 23.12
Mixed Race 2,250 1.81
White (Hispanic) 2,051 1.65
Native American/Alaskan 1,131 0.91

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the LAWRENCE surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of LAWRENCE in historical publications

Flourishing, spreading, from Laurus, the laurel-tree. Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ashton Hall, Lancashire, England, accompanied Richard I. to the Holy Land, 1191.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.


SAINT LAWRENCE. This family (the Earl of Howth's) claim to have been barons by tenure of Howth, in Ireland, ever since the conquest of that kingdom by King Henry II., the ancestor having assisted in Strongbow's invasion. He was doubtless of Norman extraction, and he may have come either from St. Lawrent, near Bayeux, or from the place of the same name near Yvetot.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.


Similar names to LAWRENCE

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as LAWRENCE.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.

Potential typos for LAWRENCE

The following words are slight variants of LAWRENCE that are likely to be possible typos or misspellings in written material.