Harlow for a boy

[Ladypug]

Firstly is Harlow ok for a boy or too feminine? Secondly we're close to a Harley - is it too similar?

If you like the sound of Harlow, have you considered Carlo?

Whoever made the sawbridgeworth comment I HOWLED at that.

Harlow is a pit town.
Marlow again a town... A nice town but a town none the less.

How about Barlow

Joe Hart's son is called Harlow. I quite like it.

Marlow and Harlow are girls names imo.

I think Arlo is much better.

Arlo is just as bad as that is how the rough people of harlow pronounce it
Yes I can say that, I grew up there.

Hehe, as others have said.. if you visit Harlow you would really not want to name your child after the place (and both of mine were born there!) O am also not keen on Arlo even though it is or was quite trendy. It sounds like someone dropping the H.

I expect some use it thinking it sounds cool E.g. Harlow in the USA.

Maybe not. While the rest just think of surnames and the unremarkable town in the UK.

Arlo isn't much better.

Well I'm sure I will find something, hopefully something that doesn't rhyme!

Swindon is a boys name

How helpful!

All this Harlow bashing - come on it may be a concrete pit of despair full of roundabouts, but it's got a TK Maxx, Asda and a massive Primark. I aim for it every time I get off the aeroplane at Stansted - it's like one giant supermarket sweep for me the afternoons I spend in Harlow.

I don't think it's a great name for a baby though.

As someone who doesn't know anything about either town, I'd say I prefer Marlowe over Harlow for a boy's name. Although there is precedence for both having been used this way, Marlowe is perhaps better established, with a couple of actors (whose surnames escape me, sorry!) with that name.

Many places were named after people, and many people are named after places. If you like a name then don't let that put you off.

"Sorry I didn't know it was a place, I just wondered"

sigh You are naming a child with something it has no choice over and will have to stick with for years. Parents to be really should be thorough in their research of potential names. This is how the Michael Hunts of the world come about, poor bastards.

Listen curly, I'm in the very early stages of looking at names and I read in a magazine that someone had used Harlow so I just put it out there. It's the first name I've ever put out there on MN and because of snobby responses like yours I won't put anymore out, why can't people be a bit nicer? I said I won't use it. I didn't know it was a place and it was the first name I looked at. Later down the line I'm sure I would have found out it was a place but even then I probably wouldn't have known how awful it is as I haven't been there. What a pointless and nasty comment to come on and write - honestly!

No.

There you go. That's my opinion.

Curly is there any need for your harsh comments. Any baby name is going to have a hoard of people who like it and a hoard of people who hate it. It doesn't mean people aren't being mindful of what they name their children.

OP I know an Arlo and a Harlow both boys born recently so yes it can be used for boys if you like the names. Actually both seem to be climbing up the popular name lists!

Harlow is an ugly concrete jungle in Essex.

I live not too far from it, though don't often have to go there. That would be the image it would conjure up for me.

Curly, how can you critise someone who is currently clearly researching names, for not researching names?

Ladypug, there is a story, which other posters have alluded to,that when Jean Harlow met Margot Asquith, she didn't know how to pronounce Margot. Asquith told her that the t was silent, as in Harlow. I'd avoid Harlow as a name, because of the "silent t " jokes.

DP is from Harlow, although makes a point of being clear that it's Old Harlow actually. 

It's not a suitable name in our family. We do know an Arlo though, which I could never use either!

I live in Essex, massive no go, Harlow is a rough town in the West of the county. Not sure where you live but think of somewhere you wouldn't want to live and think of using that as a child's name.

How about Stevenage, Slough or Swindon?

I quite like it, prefer Arlo though.