Tow
surname · Latin script
Meaning: To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/toʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Tow is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 174K(measured from records)
- DKDenmark1 in 978K
- ARArgentina1 in 2.5M
carrying the name, as counted by each country's national register. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 56 (measured from records)
- 1 in 174K (inferred from the name graph)
1,910 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
United States
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Tow counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
1,910 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Tow is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Akan, fwe ase, they fall one upon anotJter. Le. 26,37. e-tow, 1.+ (adwuma-tow), levy, 1K15,13. - 2. several companies; several townships or communities (x a single); district; pi. ntow-ntow. *g-tow-ad(^, wave-offering. Le.8,27. — *tow-adaka, treasury. *tow-fwefo, pi. id. collector of income. iKx. 4, 7. [Mk. 12,41
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In enm, Unprepared flax, especially used as a firestarter.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
ISO 639-3 language code for Jemez.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In sbh, a hardwood tree: Intsia bijuga
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Michael TowUSAsian-American actor, director and producer
- Emma TowCACanadian actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 15 sources across 7 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.9K | #15,355 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.9K | #14,457 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.9K | #15,115 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 52 | #43,393 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 44 | #2,315 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 31 | #48,392 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 18 | — |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 16 | #2,015 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 6 | #55,407 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 2 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 2 | #396,043 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 2 | #72,944 |
Reference works 3
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Tow mean, and where does it come from?
- To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Tow?
- A machine transcription gives /toʊ/ (IPA) for English.
- What are other forms of the name Tow?
- In the etymology graph, Tee and Taw are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Tow have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.9 thousand people named Tow, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tow.
- Where is Tow most common?
- Tow is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 174 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Tow?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,910 people named Tow in 2010, about 1 in 174 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Tow?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/towThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Tow”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.