Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Fearsithe, composed of the elements fear ‘man’ + sith ‘peace’. Some early forms with prepositions, as for example William de Fersith (Edinburgh 1365), seem to point to an alternative origin as a habitational name, but no place name of suitable form is known. The spelling Forsythe is associated chiefly with northern Ireland.