Is Laurie in the Bible? No, It Is a Short Form of Laura or Lawrence

No one named Laurie appears in the Bible. Laurie began as a short form of two Latin names: Laura, from laurus, “laurel,” and Laurence or Lawrence, “from Laurentum,” an Italian city probably named for the same tree. It has no Hebrew meaning, and French calendars give it the name day of Saint Lawrence, 10 August.

What does Laurie mean?

Behind the Name lists Laurie as a diminutive of both Laura and Laurence, and either way the name leads back to the laurel. Laura comes straight from the Latin word. In ancient Rome laurel leaves were woven into garlands for victors, which gave the name a favourable meaning. Laurence comes from Laurentius, a Roman family name meaning “from Laurentum,” a city in ancient Italy whose name probably came from laurus. Laurie is sometimes said to mean “crowned with laurel,” but that describes the tree’s use, not what either name means.

Laurie is given to both girls and boys. In the United States it has been used mostly for girls: it climbed from the bottom of the top 1,000 names in the 1930s to 37th place in 1960, and it dropped off the list after 1994. In England and Wales it is now given mainly to boys and ranked 372nd for them in 2025. In French it is a girls’ name, treated as a form of Laure. Lori and Lorrie are other spellings of Laurie, and Lauren, a feminine form of Laurence, belongs to the same family.

Is Laurie in the Bible?

No. Laurie is not in the Hebrew or Greek text of the Bible or in any English translation, and neither are Laura and Lawrence. It is not a Hebrew name and has no meaning in Hebrew.

The laurel tree does appear once in the English Standard Version. In Psalm 37 the psalmist says, “I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree,” and goes on, “But he passed away, and behold, he was no more” (Psalm 37:35–36). The King James Version calls it “a green bay tree,” bay being another name for the laurel, and the New International Version “a luxuriant native tree.” The ESV’s own footnote says the identity of the tree is uncertain.

The New Testament mentions the victor’s wreath, though it never says what the wreath was made of. Paul writes: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Is there a Saint Laurie?

Nominis, the saints’ directory of the Catholic Church in France, lists no saint named Laurie. It treats Laurie as a form of Laure and gives it the name day of Saint Lawrence of Rome, 10 August, the feast of the deacon martyred in Rome in 258. Laura has a saint of her own in Laura of Córdoba, a widow who became a nun and abbess in Muslim Spain and was martyred in 864. Her feast is kept locally on 19 October.

Related reading

• Lawrence Is Not in the Bible — It Means “From Laurentum”
• Laura Is Not in the Bible — It Means “Laurel”
• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names