Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fearadhaigh ‘descendant of Fearadhach’, a personal name of uncertain origin, probably an adjective derivative of fear ‘man’.
  • English : metonymic occupational name for a ferryman, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a ferry crossing on a river. Middle English feri ‘ferry’ is from Old Norse ferja ‘ferry’, ultimately cognate with the Old English verb ferian ‘to carry’.