trennels | Pronounciation of 'Lawrie' (Reply)

We've had a family debate recently and it occurred to me that people here were more likely than most to have thought about the answer.

How to pronounce 'Lawrence' - or 'Laurence'? I've always figured the first syllable to be a short 'o' sound, so the name with either spelling rhymes with 'Florence'.
Which means that the short form, Lawrie/Laurie would be pronounced 'lorry'.

Others claim that the first syllable actually has the 'aw' sound, or even if it doesn't, that 'Lawrie' is actually said as 'law-ree', and the only other traditional short form is 'Larry'. Surely these people are mad and wrong?!

Turned out that though we all liked 'Lawrence', no-one could stand the idea that the baby in question would get called 'lorry'/Laws/Larry/law-ree/Loz.
He's been named Rowan instead. :)