Laural
Feminine
Laural sits between Laura and Laurel and cannot quite decide. The plant and the name have been tangled for two thousand years, and the most famous modern Laurel picked the word out of a book of Roman history because his own name had thirteen letters and he thought that was unlucky.
How old is the name Laural?
Laural first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Laural alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 900 people named Laural are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laural most popular?
Laural peaked in 1957, reaching #1474 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Where it comes from
From a Latin word gives both a woman's name and a tree to Laural
The story of Laural
Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson and changed it early in his career because the name he had was made of thirteen letters. He is said to have found the word in a book with an engraving of a Roman wearing a laurel wreath, liked the look of it, and used it from then on; the change was not made legal for decades. He was a music-hall comic from Lancashire who had understudied Chaplin on the same American tour, and he wrote and directed a great deal of the work the partnership is remembered for without ever taking a credit for it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Laura is a name and laurel is a plant, and they descend from the same Latin word, but they are not the same thing: one came through Italian as a woman's name and the other came through French as the tree. This spelling has an ending that belongs to the plant and a shape that belongs to the name, which means it can be read either way. That is probably how it was intended — a family writing what they said, with the two words already blurred in ordinary American speech.
How the name formed
- a Latin word gives both a woman's name and a tree
- Laura arrives in English through Italian poetry
- laurel arrives separately through French as a plant
- a comedian takes the plant word as a stage surname
- Laural appears in American records in the 1910s
Related forms: Laurel · Laura · Laure
Pronouncing Laural
LOR-ul
Two syllables, stress at the front, exactly like the plant. Some families say lor-AL, giving the ending weight, which the spelling permits and which sounds like a different name.
Nicknames for Laural
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 195752 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1474reached in 1957
- Change vs 2006
- −50.0%5 in 2012, from 10
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.
Laural in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laurel in English — spelling variant
- Laura in English — related form
- Laure in French — related form
Laurals among us
people named Laural 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
Laural 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
- Laurie is available immediately and works at any age.
- It is read correctly at sight by almost everyone.
- It carries a plant with a very long symbolic history without being a plain word name.
- Laurel and Laura are both far commoner and both will be substituted.
- The spelling reads as an error to people who have not thought about it.
- The stress placement is genuinely unsettled between two readings.
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Laural
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Laurals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Laural are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Laural in 2025?
- Laural is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Laural with classmates?
- Laural will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laural? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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