Lavery

From the Gaelic Ó Labhradha, "descendants of Labhradha" (speaker, spokesman, the father of Etru, chief of the Monagh of the Irish over-kingdom of Ulaid); the name of an ancient family originating from Magh Rath (present-day Moira, County Down, Northern Ireland). The name is still most common in this area and the bordering County Antrim, as well as in the Montaighs district of County Armagh, where many moved during the Plantation of Ulster.

Due to the number of Laverys in these areas, the different branches of the family are distinguished by epithets - Ó Labhradha Bán or Baun-Lavery, the "white"; Ó Labhradha Ruadh or Roe-Lavery, the "red"; and Ó Labhradha Tréan or Trin-Lavery/Trenlavery, the "strong". The last often mistranscribed their name to English as Armstrong.