 The population of McFarland was 12,707 at the 2010 census and an estimated 15,506 as of 2019.In the early 1900s an educator named James Boyd McFarland moved to the Anaheim area from Zanesville, Ohio, to try his hand at real estate and walnut farming.McFarland visited Kern County in 1907 and was impressed with the land's crop growing potential near a community called Hunt's Siding, which was a small agriculture and livestock based community that served about 50 families.