English
The surname Murrow is of Irish, Scottish and English origin. It is an anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Murchadh, composed of the elements 'muir', sea and 'cadh', warrior; thus the name comes to mean 'sea warrior'. One can clearly see the character of the early Irish and Celts in their occupation of Europe from an inspection of the meaning of family names originating from Ireland; Clancy "ruddy warrior", Hanrahan "champion", Finney "soldier" and Morrow "sea warrior". The love of fight or battle is clearly reflected in such Irish family names. The English name derives either from residence in a row of houses on a moor or from the Old Norse 'vra', Middle English 'wra', meaning nook, corner. The name in the former sense thus comes to signify 'dweller at the moor-row ( of dwellings )'. There is also a hamlet in England named Morrowe, thus the name in some cases may be a habitational name. The name dates back to early history and its Celtic bearers. The exact date that this name came to North America is not certain but it is believed that the name came to America during the great migration of the seventeenth century. This name is the four-hundredth and eighty-first most common surname in America.