Laban Family History

English (Derbyshire and Staffordshire): apparently a variant of Laybourn with loss of -r-. French (mainly Gascogne): perhaps from the Biblical personal name Laban borne by the father of Rachel and Leah. Dutch (Zealand): of Scottish origin from Loban (see Lobban).

North German: variant of Labahn. Serbian: nickname derived from the Romance root alb- ‘white’ or from obsolete Serbian labati ‘to swill to swig’. Alternatively perhaps from the Biblical personal name Laban (see 2 above).

Hungarian: probably a variant of Labanc an unflattering nickname for a pro-Austrian soldier who fought against the Hungarians in the independence wars in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This nickname derived from the Hungarian lobonc ‘unkempt hair’ referring to the long hair of the Habsburg soldiers.

Later the name became a vocabulary word denoting a foot soldier or a rough strong man. See also Kurucz.

In some cases probably also an Americanized form of Slovenian Leban or of its probable cognate Leben.