Farlow
A surname most likely taken from the place name Farlow in Shropshire, meaning someone who came from that locality.
The #9,865 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 94,158 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Farlow is best understood as a locational surname, formed from the place name Farlow in Shropshire. In English surname practice, that usually meant “from Farlow” or “of Farlow,” identifying a person by their home village or estate. The place-name element is probably old English in origin, though the exact meaning is not certain from these excerpts alone.
History
The name appears in 19th-century surname dictionaries as a local name from Shropshire, and later reference works repeat that interpretation. As with many locational surnames, it would have spread when families moved away from the original place and were identified by where they had come from. It remains relatively uncommon in the modern United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
An early surname scholar also treated Farlow as a classic example of a local English surname, alongside names like Farley and Farman.
From the historical record
“ford, Somerset, Bedford, and Kent. FARLOW. A chapelry in Staffordshire. FARM. From residence at one. FARMAN. See Fairman. Farman or Fai-mannus is however personal in Domesd. FARiMAR. FARMER. See Fermor. FAPailNG appears in the Reg. Gen.'s list of odd names. It is doubtless local:”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom