Boy name origins & meanings
- English : From the fern slope
Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of the many places, such as Farnell (Kent, Wiltshire), Farnhill (West Yorkshire), and Fernhill (Cheshire), named from Old English fearn ‘fern’ + hyll ‘hill’. In a few cases it may also derive from Farnell in Angus, Scotland, although the surname is not now common in Scotland.