Larence
Masculine · “from Laurentum”
Larence is Lawrence without its w, and the missing letter is more interesting than it looks. That w is not a consonant at all. In law, saw, hawk and Lawrence it is half of a vowel spelling — and the letter itself is, as its English name still says out loud, a doubled u.
How old is the name Larence?
Larence first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Larence alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 400 people named Larence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Larence most popular?
Larence peaked in 1886, reaching #959 nationally. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Latin Laurentius, from the town of Laurentum to Larence
The story of Larence
Larence has one of the shortest careers in the American record: it appears, reaches its high point, and starts down again in the same year. That pattern is worth understanding, because it is what a spelling looks like when it is not a fashion. Fashionable variants build for a decade and decline for two. A spelling that arrives at its peak has usually arrived complete — carried by a handful of families who were already writing the name that way, entering the record together because the record itself was new. What follows is not a decline in popularity. It is the same small number of families, still spelling it their way, against a country that had settled on the w.
Meaning
from Laurentum, and so of the laurel
The w in Lawrence does no consonant work. English inherited the pair au from Latin and French and then, in a great many words, wrote it aw instead — the same sound, a different habit, which is why we have laud and law, fault and fawn. The letter w was created as two u shapes joined, to write a Germanic sound Latin had no letter for, and English still calls it double u while every other language calls it something else. So Larence has not dropped a consonant. It has dropped half of a vowel, and the vowel is what changes when a reader meets it.
How the name formed
- Latin Laurentius, from the town of Laurentum
- Lawrence and Laurence established in English
- the aw spelling settles in English for the au sound
- Larence appears in American records in the 1880s
- never separates from the spelling it varies
Related forms: Laurent · Lorenzo · Lorenzo · Laurence
Pronouncing Larence
LOR-unss
Said exactly like Lawrence by most families, with the first vowel of law. Some readers meeting the spelling cold produce LARE-unss, which the letters permit and the name does not intend.
Nicknames for Larence
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1886
- Most boys named
- 192737 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #959reached in 1886
- Change vs 1990
- +20.0%6 in 2014, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Larence in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laurent in French — same name
- Lorenzo in Italian — same name
- Lorenzo in Spanish — same name
- Laurence in English — spelling variant
Larences among us
people named Larence are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Larence sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is completely established, so nobody has to be taught how to say it.
- Larry is waiting inside it, and Lars and Lorenzo are honest relatives if a family wants a European form.
- It is a genuinely old name with a Roman town behind it, dressed in an unusual spelling.
- Every form, letter and database will restore the w. This is the defining fact of carrying this spelling.
- Readers who have not met it may produce a first vowel the family never intended.
- It offers no distinct identity from Lawrence, only a distinct signature.
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Larence
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Larences are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Larence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Larence in 2025?
- Larence is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Larence with classmates?
- Larence will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Larence? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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