tolkiens legendarium - Significance of the name "Lorien"

In B5 Lorien is the name of a member of a very old (possibly the oldest) race in the galaxy. Though he can choose to appear humanoid he actually is more of a energy-field. He is very powerful and guides Sheridan through his near-death-dream state.

In LotR Lorien is the name of a member of a very old (possibly the oldest) race on earth. Though they choose to be humanoid, there is no telling how they "really" look. In LotR Lorien is the master of visions and dreams.

Was this name chosen purposefully by J Michael Straczynski? If so, what is it's significance? Or is there a third "Lorien" both Loriens are named after?

This is an out-of-universe-question so obviously I'm not hoping for an in-canon answer. But both authors spoke and wrote extensively about their work so maybe there is some answer out there!

Answer

All this speculation is interesting but no one seems to know the answer to this question. I even checked out some of his interviews on TV Legends.org as well as JMS Mail and this was all I found:

From: J. Michael Straczynski
Subject: Lorien
To: CIS
Date: 11/30/1996 5:57:00 PM

I just kinda thought it was a cool sounding name....

jms

So I would suggest you ask him yourself by posting a question Here or through his Twitter account. You may know that JMS is rather approachable about these things.

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