Named, like Graham Avenue, after the land speculators John and James Lorimer Graham.
Lorimer Street was named for John Lorimer Graham and James Lorimer Graham, two 'land jobbers' of 1836. It was opened in 1852 from Broadway to Grand Street. In the old city of Brooklyn, the street was then called Gwinnett Street, after Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; that stretch was later turned into an extension of Lorimer Street.