Harlow is an English surname and the name of a town in Essex, from the Old English here, "army", and hlaw, "hill", so roughly "army hill" or "hill of the host". The platinum-blonde screen star Jean Harlow gave it Hollywood glamour, and celebrity parents revived it in the 2000s. Harlow entered the US top 1000 in 2009, rose from number 422 in 2015 to a peak of 237 in 2021 and ranks 309th in 2025.