by Jim Young (guest)
6/29/2007, 7:08 AM
Strictly speaking it's English, a diminutive form of the male name Laurence, in the style of Wilkin, Jenkin, Hopkin. However, it was adopted by Irish families with the surname Ó Lorcáin as an English substitute for their Gaelic name. Ó Lorcain, means "descendant of Lorcán", which is a man's name believed to be from the word lorc, "rough, fierce". there were four identifiable families of this name in medieval Ireland, in Wexford. Armagh, Galway, and Tipperary, so it belongs to all four provinces.