LAVENDER

A laundress; Lavandière, French, one who washes, from the Latin, lavo, to wash.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

LAVENDER. This Is one of the numerous instances occurring in our family nomenclature of a name's 'not meaning what it says.' As we have many surnames derived from the vegetable kingdom, this might well be associated with the wellknown garden herb ; but it comes from an entirely different source. The obsolete French word larandicr, awasher-wirt??, is its real parent ; and as lavanderie, wash-house, has become laundry, so has this surname become further corrupted to Launder and Lander.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.