Where the name comes from

The short version

The name most likely began as a place name: Ferny Hough (written Ferneyhough, Fernyhough, Fernihough and other ways in later records), an estate in the parish of Endon, near Leek, in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The name means roughly a "ferny hill spur" or "fern-covered ridge or hollow". People who lived at or came from the place took it as a surname, and it later spread out in many spellings.

What the sources say

• Meaning. Old English fearnig or fearn (fern) with hoh (a hill spur or heel of land) or halh (a nook, hollow or corner of land). SurnameDB gives "a hill spur overgrown with ferns" (Fernyhough) and a "ferny hollow" or spur (Fernihough). The Guild of One-Name Studies profile for Fernyhough gives "someone who lived at or near a fern covered hill or cliff" in the parish of Leek or Endon. (Sources: SurnameDB, Guild profile.)
• The place. Forebears describes Fernyhough as the name of a Staffordshire estate long held by a family of the name, with the family also in Cheshire. (Source: Forebears.)
• Earliest forms. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names (as summarised online) records the place name as Fernihalu about 1278 and Fernyhalg in 1307, from Old English fearnig ("ferny") + halh ("nook, corner"). Wiktionary and Forebears give the same Endon origin. [We have not yet read the dictionary entry itself, so treat the 1278 and 1307 dates as reported.]
• First people. The Staffordshire lay subsidy (tax) roll of 1327, Totmonslow hundred, Endon section, lists Adam de Fernihaleugh (Staffordshire Historical Collections, vol 7 part 1). The 1332 subsidy roll lists Adam de Fernyhough in the same hundred, among the same neighbours as the 1327 Endon list, which places him at Endon, though that page does not name the township. (Sources: 1327 roll and 1332 roll on British History Online, from the William Salt Archaeological Society's Staffordshire Historical Collections.) The Guild of One-Name Studies profile also lists a John Fernyhough of Fernyhough, a small estate in Staffordshire in 1315, which we have not seen in a primary source.
• Hill or nook? Sources differ on the second element: hoh (a hill spur) in SurnameDB and Forebears, halh (a nook or hollow) in the dictionary and the early place-name forms. The early forms (-halu, -halg) favour halh.
• More to read. The Victoria County History of Staffordshire, vol. 7 (Leek and the Moorlands) indexes a Fernyhough (Fernihough) family on British History Online; we have not yet read the passages it points to.

Sources disagree on some points

1. Possible second origin in Lancashire. Forebears quotes a 1903 reference (British Family Names) saying Fernihough comes from Fernihalgh, a place in Lancashire. Fernyhalgh near Broughton, Preston, does exist: the Victoria County History mentions it in documents from the 1320s onward, and the Oxford dictionary is reported to give it as a possible alternative source (Fernehalgh 1500, Fernyhalgh 1516). It is quite possible that unrelated families took the name from different places. Y-DNA testing is the way to tell.
2. The "Frith + heugh" explanation. The website britishsurnames.uk derives Ferneyhough from the Old English personal name Frith plus heugh (a steep hill). We have not used this: no sources are given, it clashes with the medieval place-name forms above, and the same site gives a different, fern-based origin on its Fernyhough page. We mention it only so visitors who have seen it know why this site differs.
3. Different earliest-date claims. britishsurnames.uk gives its earliest Fernyhough record as 1660 in East Cheshire. That is contradicted by the 1332 and 1383 records above.

What we cannot yet say

• That every bearer of every spelling descends from the Endon family. (Some may; the evidence is not yet in.)
• That Ipstones is a centre of the name. Our own tree has a large cluster there in the 1700s and 1800s, but no published source documents it, and the places in the early records are Leek, Endon, Kingsley and Norton in the Moors. This needs checking against the parish registers.

Sources

SurnameDB (Fernihough, Ferneyhough, Fearnehough); Guild of One-Name Studies profile for Fernyhough; Forebears (Fernyhough, Fernihough); Wiktionary: Fernyhough; Staffordshire Historical Collections (vol 7, vol 10) via British History Online; Victoria County History of Lancashire vol 7 (Broughton). Accessed 6 October 2026.