LaRue
A French surname most likely meaning “one who lives on the main street” or “the street.”
The #3,047 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,261 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Larue is a French surname built from rue, the French word for “street.” In older French usage, rue could also have referred more specifically to a main street, so the name likely began as a topographic label for someone who lived on or by the principal street of a town or village. Some 19th-century sources also connect it with broader senses of rue found in medieval French, but the main-street explanation is the most straightforward.
History
The name is well established in French surname collections and also appears in North America, where it is often written as LaRue. In older scholarship it is grouped with other French names built from places or landscape features. The spelling with an internal capital is a modern stylistic convention rather than a historical necessity.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because rue means “street” in French, Larue is one of those surnames whose literal sense is still easy for modern speakers to recognize.
From the historical record
“d'Artois. Larue. Au moyen âge, rue a voulu (lire aussi ruisseau, roue et mêlée, bataille. Dans le sens actuel do rce, qui était le plus usité et qui doit être surtout accepté ici, le nom de Larue voulait dire sans doute”
— Dictionnaire des noms (French surnames)