The Labrador is believed to have originated on the island of Newfoundland, now part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is thought to have descended from the St. John's Water Dog (no longer in existence), a crossbreed of native water dogs and the Newfoundland to which the Labrador is closely related. The name Labrador was given to this dog by the Earl of Malmesbury and other breeders in England in order to differentiate them from the Newfoundland dog. The Labrador Retriever was originally called the lesser Newfoundland or the St. John's dog. Other origins suggested for the name include the Spanish or Portuguese word for rural/agricultural workers, Portuguese "lavradores" or Spanish "labradores", and the village of Castro Laboreiro in Portugal whose herding and guard dogs bear a "striking resemblance" to Labradors [1].

Many fishermen originally used the Lab to assist in bringing nets to shore; the dog would grab the floating corks on the ends of the nets and pull them to shore.

The first known written reference to the Labrador is in 1814 in "Instructions to Young Sportsmen". In 1823 sporting artist Edwin Landseer painted a black dog with white markings titled "Cora. A Labrador Bitch," by which time it appears the breed was already firmly established, with several of the nobility either owning or breeding them by the end of that century. The first Yellow Lab on record, named Ben of Hyde, was born in 1899.