The surname of ANSLOW was a locational name 'of Anslow' a spot in County Staffordshire. The name meant 'the dweller by the meadow' from residence nearby. Local surnames, by far the largest group, derived from a place name where the man held land or from the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived. These local surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in". The names may derive from a manor held, from working in a religious dwelling or from literally living by a wood or marsh or by a stream.

Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization.

Early records of the name mention Richard de Anslowe, 1273 County Stafford. Thomas Anslow was recorded in the year 1300, and Edward Anslow of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. William Anslo appears in County Lancashire in the year 1400.

The name is also spelt as Hanslow and Ansley.