Family name origins & meanings
- English : 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’.
- English : from the Old Norse personal name Farþegn, composed of the elements fara ‘to go’ + þegn ‘warrior’, ‘hero’.