An Scottish and Irish surname, McFarland comes from the Gaelic term ‘parlan’ and added with ‘mc’ it refers to the son of Pharlan and Partholan. The spelling variations for McFarland include McFarlan, McParlin, McFarlane, MacFarland, McParland and MacFarland. In England the concentration of McFarland families is in Lancashire, Durham and Cheshire counties. In Scotland the original McFarland families settled in Aberdeenshire. Most with the McFarland surname for decades have lived in the central region of the country. The counties with the highest population of McFarlands are Perthshire, Angus, Lanarkshire, Argyll and Renfrewshire. From Scotland, many McFarland families moved to Ireland, settling in County Tyrone. Within the United States the earliest McFarland families settled in Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. Famous: Mark McFarland (professional race car driver), Daron McFarland (actor and playwright), Anthony McFarland (professional football player), George “Spanky” McFarland (child actor), John McFarland (professional ice hockey player), Mike McFarland (actor, writer and director) and Gary McFarland (musician and music composer).