Ferneyhough family history

Where the name lived and lives

Today (modelled estimates)

World map with bubbles for England, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia sized by the number of people with the name — Where people with these surnames live today. Bubble sizes are Forebears’ estimated bearers (all main spellings, c.2014). Only the countries named in Forebears’ pages for the main spellings are shown; roughly 500 more people live in other countries. Base map: Natural Earth, public domain.

Bar chart of estimated bearers worldwide by spelling: Ferneyhough 811, Fernihough 639, Fernyhough 621, Fearnehough 283, Fearneyhough 153, Fernehough 11, Fearnyhough 1 — Estimated people worldwide by spelling (Forebears, c.2014). Estimates are modelled, not counted.

Forebears (c.2014 data):

Ferneyhough: ~811 worldwide. England 445, Canada 202, USA 110. 40% of English bearers in Staffordshire.
Fernihough: ~639 worldwide. England 295; Worcestershire 23%, Derbyshire 16%, Staffordshire 13%.
Fernyhough: ~621 worldwide. England 417, New Zealand 60, USA 38, Australia 25. 49% of English bearers live in Staffordshire, 8% in Greater London, 7% in West Yorkshire. In England the number rose by about 186% between 1881 and 2014.
Fearnehough: ~283 worldwide. England 218, USA 46; concentrated in South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.
Others (Fearneyhough ~153, mostly USA; Fernehough ~11; Fearnyhough ~1).

Combined, the Forebears figures add to roughly 2,500 people across these seven spellings (about 811 + 639 + 621 + 283 + 153 + 11 + 1 = 2,519); the earlier "~620 bearers" figure refers only to the Fernyhough spelling. Other sources: britishsurnames.uk gives about 451 UK bearers of Ferneyhough and about 420 of Fernyhough. These estimates overlap and are not additive in any exact sense.

2002 UK (Guild profile, citing ONS)

Fernyhough 501, Ferneyhough 482, Fernihough 238.

1881 census (England and Wales)

Exact-spelling counts from the FamilySearch index of the 1881 census of England and Wales (searched 7 October 2026; similar-spelling matching switched off):

Spelling	Records	Staffordshire	Lancashire	Cheshire	Elsewhere (largest)
Fernyhough	241	143	21	32	Wales 11, Yorkshire 9
Ferneyhough	219	160	5	18	Nottinghamshire 8, Leicestershire 7, Northamptonshire 6
Fernihough	144	57	48	18	Worcestershire 13, Derbyshire 5, Nottinghamshire 5
Fearnehough	83
Fernehough	20
Fearnyhough	13
Fearneyhough	7
Fearnyough	2
Fernihaugh	0
All spellings	729

In 1881 the Fernyhough spelling was a little commoner in England and Wales than Ferneyhough (241 records against 219); by the c.2014 Forebears estimates Ferneyhough is the commoner spelling worldwide.

Stacked bars of 1881 census records by county for Ferneyhough, Fernyhough and Fernihough — The three commonest spellings in the 1881 census of England and Wales, by county (FamilySearch index, exact spellings).

About two thirds of the Ferneyhough and over half of the Fernyhough records are in Staffordshire; Fernihough is split between Staffordshire and Lancashire. County figures come from the index's place filter and can differ by a few records from the totals. For comparison, the Guild of One-Name Studies profile reports 401 instances in Staffordshire in 1881 (all spellings), with secondary clusters in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Emigration

Forebears shows significant bearers in New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Australia. Routes and dates are not yet researched.

Caveats

Forebears numbers are modelled and sometimes differ greatly from census-derived numbers. Counts for very rare spellings are unreliable. Great Britain Family Names Profiler and census indexes should be added for per-county maps.

Sources

Forebears (per-variant pages linked above); Guild of One-Name Studies profile (Fernyhough); britishsurnames.uk (cited only for its counts, not its origin theory); FamilySearch 1881 census index. Accessed 6-7 October 2026.