Recorded as Farnan, Farnin, Farning, Farnon, Farahan, Farriname, Farnane, Fernan, Fernon and probably others, this is claimed to be a surname of Irish origins. This may well be so, although there is just a possiblity that it may be French, and a variant of Faron or Farnoux, a nickname surname for a miller of flour. What is certainly true is that it has been recorded in Irish church registers since the Stuart period as shown below, and it has been claimed that a family called Farnon of Ardstraw in County Tyrone held the position of erenagh since medieval times. This was a heriditary title for people responsible for the maintenance and operation of church lands, which may include farms as well as the church itself and houses associated with it. However we have not been able to prove this assertion. The surname appears to be first recorded in the church registers of Dublin in 1685 when Mary Farahan as spelt, married one William Hamilton at St Andrews Dublin, and in London Francis Farnan married Margaret Fitzhenry, as Irish a surname as you can get, at St Pancras Old Church, on October 28th 1771. The name in any form that we can recognise does not seem to have been recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London before that date, some five hundred years after the original creation of surnames. This would suggest that it is either or a non - English origin, or the original spelling has been transposed.

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