THURLOW
Thurlow is an English surname of locational origin, first attested in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries within the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. The name is associated with the villages called Great and Little Thurlow in Suffolk, which are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Tridlauua.
The etymology of Thurlow is derived from the Old English words thyrne, meaning “thorn”, and hlaw, meaning “hill”, suggesting that the original bearers of the name lived near or on a hill covered with thorn bushes. Other traditions trace it to a pre‑seventeenth‑century form thryth or thribe, meaning “council” or “assembly”, combined with hlaw to give “assembly hill”. The name was later spelled in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as Thurlowe, Thurloe, Trillo and Trillow, before stabilising in its modern form.
Documentary evidence provides the earliest recorded instances. The Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire contain the entry of Matilda de Threlowe in 1273, the first known use of the surname in this spelling. In 1278 a John de Thrillowe is listed in the same rolls, and later church registers record the christening of Mary Thurlow at St. Botolphs, Bishopsgate in 1591 and the marriage of Maudlin Thurloe to William Griffin at St. Gregory by St. Pauls, London, in 1623.
The name’s connection with landholding in Suffolk is further illustrated by the 1327 record of William de Thurlow holding estates in the village of the same name. Over subsequent centuries the family expanded throughout East Anglia, and in the late‑seventeenth century several members emigrated to North America. The first known Thurlow to settle in the colonies was Thomas Thurlow, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1664. By the early eighteenth century a marriage between John Thurlow of Suffolk and Mary Roberts of Virginia was recorded in 1707, and Captain Benjamin Thurlow is known to have participated in the French and Indian War of 1754 in Massachusetts.
In contemporary times the surname remains most common in the United Kingdom and the United States. Within the United Kingdom it is still predominantly concentrated in the East of England. In the United States, census data identify over 11 700 individuals bearing the name, with significant concentrations in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, California and the state of Alabama. The surname has a strong association with New England, reflecting the early colonial settlement patterns of its bearers.
Numerous spelling variants of the surname exist, including Thurlow, Thurloe, Thirlow, Thirllow, Thurlaugh, Thorlow, Thurloo, Thurley, Thurrells, Thrull, Turlow, Turlo and Turloe. These variants have arisen through regional pronunciation differences and orthographic changes over the past thirteen hundred years. In Scotland and Scandinavia the surname occasionally appears as Thirloe or Tharloe with further localised forms such as Thurwin in Worcestershire or Thurlestone in Devon.
Throughout its history the Thurlow name has been borne by families of standing within their communities, many of whom lay claim to extensive lands in Suffolk and Norfolk. The persistence of the surname across continents and centuries attests to its enduring legacy and the continued interest of those who carry it in maintaining a connection with their ancestral past.
Typical given names associated with the Thurlow surname
Male
- Alan
- Daniel
- David
- James
- John
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Anita
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Jane
- Karen
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Nicola
- Rachel
- Sarah
- Susan
- Wendy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Thurlow in...
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There are approximately 2,941 people named Thurlow in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,033rd most common surname in Britain. Around 45 in a million people in Britain are named Thurlow.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Thurlow
- Francis Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 8th Baron Thurlow - Retired British diplomat (1912 to 2013)
- Sir James Roualeyn Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce - Judge (1912 to 2000)
- Roualeyn Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 9th Baron Thurlow - Hereditary peer
- Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow - Lawyer and Tory politician (1731 to 1806)
- Charles Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 6th Baron Thurlow - Peer and minor cleric (1869 to 1952)
- Alec Thurlow - Football player (1922 to 1956)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.