Recorded as Larn, Larne, Larner, Lardner, and Lerner, this is usually a surname of English origins. It has at least three possible sources, each with its own distinct derivation. Firstly it may be an early medieval English occupational surname for a scholar or a schoolmaster, derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "leornian". Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the amebearer, and gradually became hereditary. The second possible source of the name is from Suffolk, where a family whose surname was recorded as "de lauueney" in 1327, and as "Lawney" in 1381, had by the 16th Century become Larner's, and gave their name to Larner's Wood in Little Saxham. Their original name is thought to have been a variant form of Delaney, which was a Norman locational surname, with the fused preposition and article "del", from any of various minor places in Normandy, so called from the Old French "aunaie", alder grove. Thirdly it can be Irish and from County Galway, although it is said that the nameholders do originate from England. Examples of the surname recordings showing the development over the centuries include: David Lardner of Yorkshire in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1161, Thomas Lerner, who married Agnes Clarke at Great Livermore, Suffolk in 1541, James Larner, a christening witness at Great Saxham, Suffolk, on January 24th 1557; and Susan Larne, who marrioed John Renshaw at the famous church of St Dunsatns in East, Stepney, on August 4th 1629. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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