Farnham
A place-name surname from one of several English parishes and settlements called Farnham.
The #7,038 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,903 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Farnham is a locational surname taken from places called Farnham in England. The place-name is usually explained from Old English elements meaning ‘fern’ and ‘homestead’ or ‘enclosure,’ so the literal sense is something like ‘fern-covered homestead.’ Because several different places bear the name, the surname could arise independently in more than one county.
History
The name is recorded as a surname in England by the Middle Ages, and one early citation appears before the reign of Edward I. As with many locational surnames, it would originally have identified someone who came from Farnham in Surrey or from another parish of the same name. Later the surname spread beyond its places of origin, including to North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers noted that Farnham was a good example of an English place-name family that produced several local surnames in different counties.
From the historical record
“chapelries in Lancashii-e. FARNHAM. Parishes, Src., In cos. Surrey, Dorset, Essex, Northumberland, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Bucks, &c. The sur- name occurs in co. Leicester, before the reign of Edw. I. B.L.G. FARQUHAR. A common Scottish sur- name— the same as the Irish Ferchard, an ancient personal name in both…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom