Family name origins & meanings
- Irish (chiefly northern Ireland) : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Labhradha ‘descendant of Labhraidh’, a byname meaning ‘spokesman’. Three branches of the sept are sometimes distinguished as Baun-Lavery (from bán ‘white’), Roe-Lavery (from rua ‘red’) and Trin-Lavery (from tréan ‘strong’). Some of this last group have been ‘translated’ as Armstrong (as if from lámh ‘hand’, ‘arm’).