“Evidently the Lamanites have used the same procedure as the Nephites did in their early history of naming their kings after their earliest leader. Jacob 1:11 mentions that the kings who succeeded Nephi were known as ‘second Nephi, third Nephi, and so forth, according to the reigns of the kings.’ Thus, it should not be too surprising to discover that the king of the Lamanites in approximately 178 B.C. was still known as ‘King Laman’ (Mosiah 10:6), although the original leader after whom the king was named had lived some four hundred years before. Also, later … we discover that the son who succeeded this king is also known as Laman (Mosiah 24:3)” (Ludlow, Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, 181).
“Leader of a group of Nephites who left Zarahemla in the hope of re-establishing themselves in their ancestral lands. … Initially, Zeniff had been part of a Nephite faction that intended to take back their former land by force. … Zeniff saw that there was good among the Lamanites, and desired that his leader withdraw his military objectives. … For advocating this alternative view, Zeniff was condemned to death. His rescue came at a terrible price, leaving the greater part of the group dead; a surviving few (fifty) returned to Zarahemla… .
“Zeniff returned to Lamanite territory and made a dubious covenant with [the Lamanite] king” (Largey, Book of Mormon Reference Companion, 802). Zeniff was also made king over his people (Mosiah 7:21).