Laura (given name)
Encyclopedia
Laura is an English female given name in Latin Europe whose meaning ("Bay Laurel
") translates to everyman
, and an early hypocorism from Laurel and Lauren.
plant, which, in the Greco-Roman era was used as a symbol of victory, honor or fame.
. Running up, the name Laura in the 19th century was #19 in 1881 and 1883 with the male name Louis. The name Laura was among the top 50 names for female newborns for much of the early 20th century in the United States, but dropped to the top 100-120 by the 1930s-40s, then rebounded to the top 20 in 1984-1986, and has since steadily decreased in popularity. The overall highest known rank for the name Laura in the 20th century is #10 in 1969 with the male name Richard
. The latest highest known rank for the name Laura in the 20th century is #14 in 1985 with the male name Jason
. The name Laura was the most rare in the years 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1905, 1963, and 1968.
In Europe, the name Laura remains as popular as it was in the past. In the early 21st century in the late 2000s, it ranked within the top 10 in countries such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Greenland, Luxembourg, Spain, and Switzerland.
Celebrities
Famous entertainers
Politics
Fictional characters
Science and technology
Bay Laurel
The bay laurel , also known as sweet bay, bay tree, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree, or simply laurel, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glossy leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. It is the source of the bay leaf used in cooking...
") translates to everyman
Everyman
In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...
, and an early hypocorism from Laurel and Lauren.
Origin and usage
The name Laura is derived from the bay laurelBay Laurel
The bay laurel , also known as sweet bay, bay tree, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree, or simply laurel, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glossy leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. It is the source of the bay leaf used in cooking...
plant, which, in the Greco-Roman era was used as a symbol of victory, honor or fame.
Popularity
In British North America, it is very likely that the name Laura was extremely popular for female newborns until its rapid decline starting in the late 19th century. The name Laura was among the top 40 names for female newborns for much of the late 19th century in the United States until it dropped off the chart in 1899 at #43. The overall highest known rank for the name Laura in the 19th century was #17 in the years 1880 and 1882 with the male name SamuelSamuel
Samuel is a leader of ancient Israel in the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. He is also known as a prophet and is mentioned in the Qur'an....
. Running up, the name Laura in the 19th century was #19 in 1881 and 1883 with the male name Louis. The name Laura was among the top 50 names for female newborns for much of the early 20th century in the United States, but dropped to the top 100-120 by the 1930s-40s, then rebounded to the top 20 in 1984-1986, and has since steadily decreased in popularity. The overall highest known rank for the name Laura in the 20th century is #10 in 1969 with the male name Richard
Richard
The first or given name Richard derives from German, French, and English "ric" and "hard" , therefore it means 'powerful leader' as well as 'King's Court'...
. The latest highest known rank for the name Laura in the 20th century is #14 in 1985 with the male name Jason
Jason (name)
Jason is a common given name for a male. It comes from Greek Ἰάσων , meaning "healer", from the verb ἰάομαι "heal, cure", cogn...
. The name Laura was the most rare in the years 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1905, 1963, and 1968.
In Europe, the name Laura remains as popular as it was in the past. In the early 21st century in the late 2000s, it ranked within the top 10 in countries such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Greenland, Luxembourg, Spain, and Switzerland.
Variants
- Lára IcelandicIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
- Laoura (Λαούρα) GreekGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
- Laura CroatianCroatian languageCroatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, DanishDanish languageDanish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, Slovene, SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, LatvianLatvian languageLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language... - Laure FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
- Laura ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
- Laurie DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... - Lavra Slovene
- Llora CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
- Lora EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia... - Lowri WelshWelsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
Namesakes
No surname- Saint LauraSaint LauraSaint Laura of Cordoba was a Spanish Christian who lived in Muslim Spain during the 9th century. She was born in Córdoba, and became a nun at Cuteclara after her husband died, eventually rising to become an abbess. She was martyred by Muslims who took her captive and scalded her to death by...
, Spanish martyr - Laura de Noves, the subject of love poetry by Petrarch
Celebrities
- Laura AshleyLaura AshleyLaura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings....
, Welsh fashion designer - Laura BiagiottiLaura BiagiottiLaura Biagiotti is an Italian high fashion designer. She studied literature in Rome, expecting to become an archeologist. Then she started to help out at Mum and Dad's dressmaking business and had her first fashion show in 1972...
, Italian fashion designer - Laura BushLaura BushLaura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
, First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009. - Laura CalderLaura CalderLaura Calder vthe host of the James Beard Award-winning series French Food at Home, airing on Food Network Canada, Cooking Channel U.S.A. and internationally. She is also a judge on Recipe to Riches, airing fall 2011 on Food Network Canada, and has been a guest judge on both Top Chef Canada and...
, Canadian chef and host of program French Food at HomeFrench Food at HomeFrench Food at Home is a James Beard Foundation Award winning cooking show presented by Laura Calder. It is filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia and airs on Food Network Canada, the Asian Food Channel, and the Cooking Channel....
,from Food Network CanadaFood Network CanadaFood Network is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel with programming related to food, cooking, cuisine, and the food industry. Food Network is a joint venture between Shaw Media, Corus Entertainment, and Scripps Networks Interactive.... - Laura MercierLaura MercierLaura Mercier is a French make-up artist who has lent her name to a line of cosmetics.-External links:*...
, French make-up artist in the cosmetics business - Laura SecordLaura SecordLaura Ingersoll Secord was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for warning British forces of an impending American attack that led to the British victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams.-Early life:...
, Canadian heroine in the War of 1812 - Laura SchlessingerLaura SchlessingerLaura Catherine Schlessinger is an American talk radio host, socially conservative commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics...
, American radio talk show host known as Dr. Laura - Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Ingalls WilderLaura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
, American author of Little House on the Prairie
Famous entertainers
- L'AuraL'AuraL'Aura alias Laura Abela is an Italian singer, songwriter, composer, pianist and violinist.L'Aura spent two years in San Francisco in preparation for recording her first record titled Okumuki, which was recorded in Italy and released in 2005. She sung part of it in Italian and part of it in English...
, Italian singer - Laura BraniganLaura BraniganLaura Ann Branigan was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" and in Europe for the number-one single "Self Control"...
, American multi-platinum 1980s singer (d. 2004) - Laura Bryan BirnLaura Bryan BirnLaura Bryan Birn is an American actress who previously played the recurring role of Paul Williams's assistant Lynne Bassett on CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless from 1988 to September 2, 2004....
American actress - Laura DernLaura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
, American actress - Laura DouglasLaura DouglasLaura Douglas is a Welsh hammer thrower.Her personal best throw is 64.74 metres, achieved in August 2010 in Hendon. This places her seventh on the British outdoor all-time list, behind Lorraine Shaw, Shirley Webb, Zoe Derham, Carys Parry, Sophie Hitchon and Sarah Holt. Douglas is also ranked...
, Welsh hammer thrower - Laura LinneyLaura LinneyLaura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
, American actress - Laura MaranoLaura MaranoLaura Marie Marano is an American teen actress. She has appeared in Without a Trace and Back to You, in both instances playing the daughter of the main characters. In December, she will be starring in a lead role in the new Disney Channel series Austin & Ally...
, American actress - Laura PausiniLaura PausiniLaura Pausini, is a Grammy Award-winning Italian soul singer-songwriter. She debuted in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit, reaching the top spot on the Italian...
, Italian singer-songwriter - Laura PõldvereLaura PõldvereLaura Põldvere also known as Laura is an Estonian singer perhaps mostly known for representing Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of the girl group Suntribe.- Career :...
, Estonian singer - Laura PreponLaura PreponLaura Prepon is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Pinciotti in the long-running Fox situation comedy That '70s Show, for all eight seasons. She is also known for the role of Hannah Daniels on the ABC drama October Road...
, American actress, That '70s' Show - Laura ThompsonLaura ThompsonLaura Thompson is a Canadian musician and music columnist for CBC Newsworld's daily arts wrap, CBC News: The Scene.Thompson is also a producer on The Scene and a member of Toronto-based pop band The Good Soldiers.-External links:*...
, CBC News anchor - Laura VandervoortLaura VandervoortLaura Dianne Vandervoort is a Canadian actress known for her roles as Kara Zor-El in the television series Smallville, Sadie Harrison in the television series Instant Star and Lisa in the television series V....
, Canadian actress - Laura MarlingLaura MarlingLaura Beatrice Marling is an English folk musician from Eversley, Hampshire.Initially prominent within the London folk scene, she has also toured with a number of well-known indie artists in the UK. Her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim and her second album I Speak Because I Can were nominated for...
, English singer
Politics
- Laura Chinchilla, president of Costa Rica
- Laura PollánLaura PollánLaura Inés Pollán Toledo was a prominent Cuban opposition leader. Pollan founded the dissident group, Ladies in White, which holds pacific protest marches with the wives and spouses of political prisoners in Cuba to demand their release. The Ladies in White are routinely and violently repressed by...
, Cuban dissident
Fictional characters
- Laura PalmerLaura PalmerLaura Palmer is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Her death was the catalyst for the events of the series...
, from the television series Twin Peaks - Laura,an anesthesiologist from the television series In TreatmentIn TreatmentIn Treatment is an American HBO drama, produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia, about a psychologist, 50-something Dr. Paul Weston, and his weekly sessions with patients, as well as those with his own therapist at the end of the week. The program, which stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, debuted on...
- Laura SpencerLaura SpencerLaura Spencer is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital. Laura was portrayed by Stacy Baldwin from 1974 to 1976, and since then has been played by Genie Francis, first from 1976–1982, and then from 1992–2002...
, a character on the soap opera General Hospital - Laura Winslow, a character from the American sitcom Family Matters
- Laura Hardy (Hardy Boys)Laura Hardy (Hardy Boys)Laura Hardy is the pretty and petite stay-at-home mother of Frank and Joe in the Hardy Boys novels . She is married to Fenton Hardy the private investigator and they all live in Bayport, New York with Fenton's sister, Aunt Gertrude...
, mother from the Hardy Boys series of books - Laura RoslinLaura RoslinHer first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
, from the reimagined television series Battlestar Galactica - Laura, the protagonist of the D (series)D (series)D is a series of video games that follow the events of "digital actress" Laura and were published by now-defunct WARP. Officially, the series includes 1995's D and 1999's D2, though 1996's Enemy Zero is considered part of the series...
video game franchise - Laura, a young girl in the Silent HillSilent Hillis a survival horror video game series consisting of seven installments published by Konami and its subsidiary Konami Digital Entertainment. The first four games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4, have been developed by an internal factor, Team Silent...
video game franchise - Laura, a female lead character in BrickBrick (film)Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It was Johnson's directorial debut and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival...
that starred Joseph Bogart - Laura Parker, an English model in Sarra Manning's Fashionistas book series.
- Laura KinneyX-23X-23 is a fictional comic book superheroine appearing in books published by Marvel Comics, in particular those featuring the X-Men. X-23 is a female clone of Wolverine.-Publication history:...
, also known as X-23, a Marvel Comics character
Science and technology
- 467 Laura467 Laura467 Laura is Main-belt asteroid discovered on January 9, 1901 by Max Wolf at Heidelberg.- External links :*...
, 1901 asteroid - Tropical Storm LauraTropical Storm Laura (1971)Tropical Storm Laura was the final storm in the active 1971 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed on November 12 in the western Caribbean Sea, and reached winds of 70 mph as it approached western Cuba. Across the island, Laura produced heavy rainfall, peaking at 32.5 inches . The...
, 1971
Name days
- January 15; SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- January 18; EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... - April 18; LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
- June 1; Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
- June 5; SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of... - June 17; HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... - October 19; Lithuania, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
See also
- Laura (disambiguation)
- Wikipedia articles that start with Laura