Robert Furlong

(male) One of the many French names of Germanic origin that were introduced into Britain by the Normans; it has since remained in continuous use. It is derived from the nearly synonymous elements hrōd ‘fame’ + berht ‘bright, famous’, and had a native Old English predecessor of similar form (Hreodbeorht), which was supplanted by the Norman name. Two dukes of Normandy in the 11th century bore the name: the father of William the Conqueror (sometimes identified with the legendary Robert the Devil), and his eldest son. It was borne also by three kings of Scotland, notably Robert the Bruce (1274–1329), who freed Scotland from English domination. The altered short form Bob is very common, but Hob and Dob, which were common in the Middle Ages and gave rise to surnames, are extinct. See also Rupert.

English and Irish: apparently a topographic name from Middle English furlong ‘length of a field’ (from Old English furh ‘furrow’ + lang ‘long’), the technical term for the block of strips owned by several different persons which formed the unit of cultivation in the medieval open-field system of farming, or a habitational name from a minor place named with this word, such as Furlong in Devon or Shropshire. The surname is now chiefly common in Ireland, where a family of this name settled at the end of the 13th century.