This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a dialectual variant of the locational surname 'Leyburn' and 'Layburn', also found as 'Labon', 'Layborn', 'Leyborne' and 'Laybourne'. The source of the name is the place called 'Leyburn' in North Yorkshire first recorded as 'Leborne' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The placename means 'the sheltered stream', derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century 'hleow', shelter, influenced by the Olde Norse 'hly', with 'burna', meaning a stream, spring or brook. The surname development has included Henry Laburn (1488, Yorkshire), William Laybon (1761, ibid.) and John Labon or Leyburn was christened on the 14th November 1855 at St. Mary the Virgin, West Derby. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Leburn, which was dated 1192, The Kent Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Richard I, The Lionheart, 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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