Search the name “Amy Lau” online and you’ll find something unexpected: a New York interior designer, a Brooklyn archivist, a financial services professional, and hundreds of genealogy records — none of them the same person. That kind of overlap is confusing, and it happens because “Amy Lau” is simply a common name with a wide reach.
This article sorts through the different individuals who share this name. It covers who the interior designer Amy Marie Lau was, what genealogy platforms actually show, and how to figure out which Amy Lau appears in your family tree.
Why So Many People Search for Amy Lau
Most readers who search for “Amy Lau” are not looking for the same person. Some have found the name in a family tree and want to know more. Others are wondering if the Amy Lau in their records is related to a well-known public figure. A few have simply come across the name in a news article or obituary and want context.
The Lau surname is common across Chinese, Hong Kong, and diaspora communities. This explains why it appears so frequently in ancestry research and why multiple distinct people named Amy Lau turn up in the same search results.
According to MyHeritage, there are over 400 records for the name “Amy Lau” across different birth years, locations, and family connections. That number alone should signal that the first step is always figuring out which Amy Lau is relevant to your search.
Amy Marie Lau: The Interior Designer and Co-Founder of Design Miami
The most publicly documented Amy Lau is Amy Marie Lau, a New York-based interior designer who built a respected career around high-end residential work and decorative arts.
She is perhaps best known for co-founding Design Miami in 2005, an annual art and design fair held alongside Art Basel Miami Beach. The fair became a major event in the design world, and her role in establishing it placed her firmly among influential figures in American design.
In October 2016, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She continued her work and remained a presence in the design community in the years that followed. She died on January 17, 2025, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of 56.
Her death was reported by the New York Times in February 2025 and confirmed through her professional Instagram account, @amylaudesign. Both sources describe the same person: a designer with a clear professional record and a documented public career.
This Amy Lau is not a genealogical figure. She was a working professional with a public profile. If your research points to someone from Hawaii in the 1920s or a Midwestern woman who lived in the mid-twentieth century, that is a different person entirely.
What Genealogy Records Show About the Name Amy Lau
When you search “Amy Lau” on a platform like MyHeritage, you are not getting one person’s profile. You are getting a list of distinct individuals who happen to share the same name.
Some examples from MyHeritage records include:
- Amy O Lau — born approximately 1926 in Hawaii
- Amy Louise Lau (born Robbins) — dates listed as 1951 to 2012
- Amy Lau (born Rubey-Lencowski) — who married a man named James Edward Lau
These are separate individuals from different places and different time periods. What they share is a name, not a family line.
Typical genealogy entries for someone like Amy Lau will show an approximate birth year, a birth location, a spouse’s name, and sometimes a list of children or parents. That is useful information, but it requires careful handling.
Genealogy records can contain errors. Dates can be estimated rather than exact. Name spellings sometimes vary between documents. Before treating any single record as definitive, it helps to cross-check it against a second source — a marriage certificate, an obituary, or a census entry — to confirm the details line up.
Other Professionals Named Amy Lau
Beyond the designer and the genealogy records, there are at least two other documented individuals who share this name and come up in public searches.
One is an Amy Lau who works as a specialist archivist at the New York Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History. Her LinkedIn profile places her in Brooklyn and describes a career in archival work — a completely separate professional path from interior design or family history records.
Another is an Amy Lau connected to financial services, who appears in a corporate video associated with Pictet, a financial firm. In the clip, she speaks about working with clients in asset servicing.
These are real people with documented professional roles. They are not connected to Amy Marie Lau or to each other simply by sharing a name. Mentioning them here is not to catalog everyone named Amy Lau, but to make clear why a basic name search produces such different results.
How to Tell Which Amy Lau Appears in Your Family Tree
If you have found an Amy Lau in a genealogy record and you want to understand who she is, a few simple steps can help you narrow it down.
Start with birth year and location
A record that shows Amy Lau born around 1926 in Hawaii cannot be the same person as the New York designer born in the late 1960s. Location and approximate birth year are your fastest tools for ruling out a match.
Look at the spouse and children listed
Family details are often what separate one Amy Lau from another. If a record lists a spouse named James Edward Lau and specific children, you can use those names to trace the branch further and see whether it connects to anyone in your own tree.
Do not assume a celebrity connection from the surname alone
The Lau surname is widespread. Finding it in your family tree does not automatically mean you are connected to a famous actor, musician, or designer who also has that name. Any claimed connection to a well-known figure should be supported by documented shared ancestors — not just a matching surname.
Use DNA results or shared family tree nodes to strengthen the picture
If you have taken a DNA test through a genealogy platform, shared matches can help confirm or challenge a proposed relationship. A family tree node alone is not proof of connection; genetic data adds a layer of reliability.
Work outward from what is documented
If a record only says “Amy Lau, mother of X, lived in Y,” start there. Research the location, the time period, and the names that appear alongside hers. Avoid filling in the blanks with guesses. The responsible approach is to let the documented facts lead you, not the other way around.
Writing Responsibly About a Non-Famous Person with This Name
If you are writing about an Amy Lau who is not a public figure — a private individual who appears in a family tree or archival record — there are a few principles worth keeping in mind.
Stick to what the records confirm. Do not invent personal details about her career, personality, or private life. A genealogy record tells you where someone was born or who they married. It does not tell you who they were as a person, and it is not fair to guess.
If she appears in the family tree of a well-known person, focus on the documented relationship rather than on her private life. You can explain how she fits into the family structure without exposing details that go beyond the public record.
For broader context about the world she lived in — the era, the location, the cultural background of the Lau family in that community — that kind of historical framing is both useful and appropriate. It gives the reader real information without overstepping into speculation.
For more profiles that balance public interest with responsible reporting, you can visit Blubizmag, where the focus stays on what the record actually shows.
Putting It All Together
The name Amy Lau is genuinely common. It belongs to a celebrated designer who helped build one of the design world’s most recognized fairs and who passed away in early 2025. It also belongs to dozens of women documented across genealogy platforms — women from Hawaii, the Midwest, and elsewhere, across different decades and different family lines.
None of these individuals should be confused with the others, and none of the private individuals should have details invented about them simply because the name sounds familiar.
The best approach is always the same: identify the specific record, check the birth year and location, look at the family details listed alongside the name, and build your understanding from confirmed facts. That is how you find the right Amy Lau — and how you treat her story with the care it deserves.
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