Old English place name from 'bere' (barley) and 'hlaw' (hill), meaning 'barley hill.'
Barlow is an English topographic surname converted to a given name, deriving from Old English place names in Lancashire and Yorkshire — specifically from *bær* (barley or bare) combined with *hlāw* (hill or mound). Several villages named Barlow exist in the English north, and like many topographic surnames it passed into common use among families who had originated in or held associations with those places. The surname-as-forename tradition is particularly strong in Anglo-American culture, where family surnames frequently migrate across generations to serve as first names, preserving lineage through nomenclature.
The name's most recognized contemporary bearer is Gary Barlow, the songwriter, producer, and lead voice of Take That, who has become one of Britain's most commercially successful musicians and a judge on *The X Factor*. Barlow as a surname in Britain also gained dramatic cultural weight through *Coronation Street*, the long-running soap opera whose central Barlow family — particularly the young Ken Barlow — anchored the show from its very first episode in 1960 through decades of storylines, making it one of the most familiar surnames in British popular culture. As a given name, Barlow sits in distinguished company with other English place-surname forenames like Sutton, Fletcher, and Colby.
It reads as grounded and unpretentious — a name with Yorkshire stone in it, with an honest northern English directness. For parents drawn to surnames that carry genuine geographic and historical weight without the fanfare of more obvious choices, Barlow offers quiet confidence.