American Family Name Origins:
Farthing
Frequency: (1206)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: 1. habitational name from a place named in Old English with fēorðing ‘fourth (part)’, ‘quarter’, being the fourth part of a larger administrative area. There are fifteen or more minor places with this name in southern England. As a surname, it may also denote someone who paid a farthing in rent, from the same word in the sense ‘farthing’, ‘quarter of a penny’. 2. from the Old Norse personal name Farþegn, composed of the elements fara ‘to go’ + þegn ‘warrior’, ‘hero’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
