I had always thought that LARIS(S)A was the name of o mountain and a castle near Argos on the Peleponnes (30 km south of Corinth). The meaning seems to be unclear, I have heard of "castle", the Ionic-Greek word for it being "lerisai."
LARIS(S)A, daughter (or mother?) of Pelasgus was said to have come from Argos.
http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/loc/larissa.htm
So I always thought that the "laros" derivation (either with the stress on the first syllable > "dove", or on the second > "lovely") was a later interpretation of the name. But I would like to learn more about this.