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Name is English, Regional, Yorkshire http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/NameSelection.aspx?name=FARRAR&ye... It is believed, but not proved that the name is a derivative of de Ferrers whose patriarch was Henri de Ferrers (also de Ferrieres or Ferrieriis) of Normandy, a companion of Duke William and a Domesday Commissioner, but this is not yet proven. The root stem of the name indicates a connection to iron (Latin Ferro) but this could be because Ferrieres in Normandy was so named because of it's iron deposit and that iron working was its speciality.
A name often associated with Farrar is Farrow, in fact in colonial America the name Farrar was often spelled Farrow by officials because of the way it was pronounced in the south. However while some Farrows are Farrars and some Farrars are Farrows not all Farrows are Farrars.
Farrow is an occupational name, derived from farrier or iron worker. http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/NameSelection.aspx?name=FARROW&ye...
There is a river in Scotland, Glen Strathfarrar, so named from the Pictish Var "to wind" Latin Varrar. So this is anoether possibility of the names origin.
Other forms make it that this is an ancient surname is of pre Christian and Roman origins. Recorded in over seventy spellings from Farrar, Farrah, Pharro and Pharoah, to Ferrara, Ferrari, Varey, Varrow and Ferrarotti, the name derives from the Latin word "ferrum", through in other countries the later French "ferreor" , and the Middle English "Farrier".
The earliest hereditary surname recordings in the world are to be found in England, that country being the first to accept and record surnames. It is from there that the examples of the early recordings are entered here. These include Hugo Farrour, in the Poll Tax returns for the county of Yorkshire in the year 1379, and in 1517 Doctor Pharor is recorded in the register of the guild of Corpus Christi, in the city of York.
One of the very first of all landowners recorded in the new American colony of Virginia, was William Farrar. He held a grant of one hundred acres "Uppon Apmatcke River" on the north side of the James River. This grant is dated 1626.
The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Thomas le Ferrur, and dated 1275, in the rolls of the county of Yorkshire. This was during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307.
Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Farrar#ixzz18pmtcVKH, although this source is not definitive, but only one of many.