Hungarian form of Vladislav, from Slavic elements meaning "rule" and "glory."
Laszlo is the Hungarian form of the Slavic name Vladislav — or more precisely, of its contracted Polish and Czech form Ladislaus — meaning "glorious rule" or "ruler with glory," from the Slavic roots "vlad" (rule) and "slav" (glory or fame). The name came to Hungary in the eleventh century, borne by one of the most celebrated kings in Hungarian history: László I, canonized as Saint László in 1192, who expanded Hungary's borders, promoted Christianity, and became the patron saint of Hungary and the embodiment of the chivalric warrior-king ideal. His legend — stories of miraculous escapes, divine intervention in battle, and righteous governance — made László a name of profound national and religious significance.
For centuries, Laszlo remained closely associated with Hungarian identity and Catholic piety. Outside Hungary it was largely unknown in the English-speaking world until the twentieth century, when it began to surface through Hungarian immigrants and, gradually, through cultural figures who gave it an intellectual and artistic glamour. László Moholy-Nagy, the Bauhaus master and pioneer of light art and photography, carried the name into the vocabulary of modernist culture.
László Benedek, László Kubala, and many other Hungarian artists, athletes, and intellectuals extended this tradition of the name as a marker of Central European creativity and seriousness. In contemporary English usage, Laszlo remains exotically rare and deeply appealing to parents who want a name with genuine historical depth and a distinctive sound. It has the slightly battered grandeur of old Europe — learned, a little melancholic, unmistakably itself.