Recorded as Pentlow, Pentelow, Pentelo, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is locational from a place called Pentlow in the county of Essex. The name probably translates as Penta's barrow, with Penta being an early English personal name with the meaning of "valley", and the suffix "hlaw," a hill or barrow. As Essex has few hills, it would seem logical that the name does mean a barrow or ancient burial site. Pentlow is first recorded in 1043 before the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Pentelowe, in an early surviving wills register. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people as easy identification after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, often lead to the creation of "sounds like" spellings. The surname is quite well recorded and examples include Arratea Pentlow who married Roland St John at St James Paddington, in the city of London, on March 21st 1684, and Mary Pentelo who married John Gage, at All Saints Colchester, Essex, on June 1st 1732