Furlong — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Furlong
Meaning: 'from Old English furlang (furrow length)'
Traditional stronghold: Wexford
Pronunciation: FUR-long
History of the Furlong name
Furlong is an English name, from the Old English furlang, the length of a furrow, but in Ireland it has been thoroughly naturalised in one county above all: Wexford, where Furlongs have been recorded since the 13th century among the settler families of the baronies of Forth and Bargy in the county's deep south. That district kept its own archaic dialect of English, Yola, into the 19th century, and the Furlongs were part of its distinctive world of Norman-descended farming families. The name still clusters densely in Wexford town and county. Bearers range from the revival poet Alice Furlong to Offaly's All-Ireland-winning goalkeeper Martin Furlong and the Wexford historian Nicholas Furlong.
Variants: Furlonge · Ferlong
Famous bearers of the name
- Alice Furlong — Poet of the Irish literary revival and Tallaght nationalist, published from the 1890s.
- Martin Furlong — Offaly goalkeeper whose penalty save helped deny Kerry five-in-a-row in the 1982 All-Ireland final.
- Nicholas Furlong — Wexford historian and author, chronicler of 1798 and of his native county.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · Doyle · Kavanagh · Cullen · Roche · Keating · Redmond · Larkin