Family name origins & meanings
- English (West Midlands) : patronymic from Firkin, a metonymic occupational name for a maker of casks and barrels, or a nickname for a stout man or a heavy drinker, from Middle English fer(de)kyn ‘small cask’ (probably from a Middle Dutch diminutive of vierde ‘fourth (part)’; as a measure of capacity a firkin was reckoned as a quarter of a barrel).