Laurie

/ˈlɒ.ri/

Laurie proper noun: a diminutive of the male given names Laurence and Lawrence; alternative form of Lawrie; a pet form of the male given name Laurence or Lawrence.

Proper noun (1)

Laurie (countable and uncountable, plural Lauries)

A diminutive of the male given names Laurence and Lawrence; alternative form of Lawrie; a pet form of the male given name Laurence or Lawrence.
- “I’m not Mr. Laurence, I’m only Laurie.”
- “Laurie Laurence; what an odd name.”
- “My first name is Theodore, but I don’t like it, for the fellows called me Dora, so I made them say Laurie instead.”1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “The Laurence Boy”, in Little Women: […], 1st part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, →OCLC, page 46
A diminutive of the female given name Laura; popular as a female given name in the US in the mid-twentieth century.
- Laura called her parents. Her father answered. Fighting to keep her voice steady, Laura said, "Hi, Daddy."
  "Laurie? How's my little girl?"2005, Adeline Catherine Anderson, My Sunshine, Signet Classic, →ISBN, page 397
A diminutive of the female given name Lauren.
A surname transferred from the given name.
- Maxwelton braes are bonnie
  Where early fa's the dew;
  An' it's there that Annie Laurie
  Gi'ed me her promise true.ca. 1700 ?William Douglas: Annie Laurie
A city in Morgan County and Camden County, Missouri, United States.

Proper noun (2)

Laurie

A commune in Cantal department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.

Forms of Laurie

plural	Lauries
alternative form	Lawrie
alternative form	Lauri
alternative form	Lori
alternative form	Lorie

Origin of Laurie

The given names are clippings of Laurence, Lawrence, Laura, or Lauren + -ie, all ultimately from Latin laurus (“laurel”). The surname is from the diminutive of Lawrence. The city in Missouri was named by its residents in 1961 after L. M. and William (Buster) Laurie, who in 1937 bought a building in the area and operated the Laurie Market, because of the goodwill generated by the family store over the years.

From French Laurie, from Latin Laurum, from laurus (“laurel”).

Questions about Laurie

What does Laurie mean?: Laurie means a diminutive of the male given names Laurence and Lawrence; alternative form of Lawrie; a pet form of the male given name Laurence or Lawrence.
What part of speech is Laurie?: Laurie is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Laurie?: Laurie is pronounced /ˈlɒ.ri/.

Words near Laurie in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Laurie (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Laurie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laurie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.