Farrow - Boy or girl?

I saw the surname Farrow and thought it would be a really cute first name. I’m not likely to use it, but I would like to add it to my list of favourite names and combinations. I just can’t decide if it’s more of a boy or girls name, and also what middle names it could be paired with. Any thoughts?

Farrow strikes me as feminine but it could go either way, really.

Farrow [name_m]Adrian[/name_m]
Farrow [name_u]Elias[/name_u]
Farrow [name_m]Julian[/name_m]

Farrow [name_f]Lucy[/name_f]
Farrow [name_f]Amelia[/name_f]
Farrow [name_f]Jasmine[/name_f]

Farrow itself has a nice sound. I looked it up, though, and unfortunately it means quite literally, “a litter of pigs.” Now, if you like pigs this may not be a problem. However, if pigs aren’t your favorite, or if you’re a devout Orthodox Jew, you might want to reconsider.

That said, I can see Farrow more for girls than boys. I’m not sure why.

[name_m]Reading[/name_m] it, it looks like ‘[name_f]Farrah[/name_f]’, so I’d say it’s feminine.
However, spoken aloud it sounds like [name_m]Pharaoh[/name_m], so it’s masculine then (like [name_m]King[/name_m] is inherently masc).

That said, beachbear is right: dictionary . com does say that a farrow a litter of piglets but I, your average person, didn’t know that so… take that as you may.

When I saw the surname, it was on a surname database site. As a surname it comes from Latin, Old English and [name_m]French[/name_m] for [name_m]Smith[/name_m] and Iron… so an Ironsmith.

Id rather go with what the surname comes from… has a nicer meaning. :blush:

I’m not a fan of Farrow for 2 reasons:

  1. Sounds just like [name_m]Pharaoh[/name_m]
  2. Farrow is a popular healthy grain food. (a sister to quinoa)

I suppose it could be either since it’s a surname. I tend to associate it with [name_f]Mia[/name_f] Farrow though.

In my accent Farrow and [name_m]Pharoah[/name_m] are pronounced differently.