Lauretta

Lauretta is an Italian diminutive of Laura, itself derived from the Latin laurus, meaning laurel tree or laurel wreath, a plant associated in antiquity with honor, victory, and poetic achievement. The name gained wide currency in the medieval and Renaissance periods, partly through the fame of Laura, the woman celebrated in Petrarch's fourteenth-century sonnets. Lauretta appears in Boccaccio's Decameron as the name of one of the young storytellers, further embedding it in Italian literary tradition. Related forms include Laura, Lauretta's masculine counterpart Lorenzo, and other diminutives such as Laurita and Loretta.