Laverne

name

name ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name transferred from the surname. US

Example

More examples

"Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams sang "shlemiel, schlemazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated" in the theme song "Making our Dreams Come True" for the television show "Laverne and Shirley," a popular American sitcom in the 1970s."

Etymology

19th-century invention, possibly from the Californian town La Verne, named in the belief that it means "the green" in French. Laverne is a genuine French surname, from Gaulish la verne "the alder (tree place)" but - as in the case of Leroy - there is no apparent reason to turn it into an American given name.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.