Explore the Family Name Farnan

The meaning of Farnan

Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Farannáin ‘descendant of Forannán’, a personal name possibly based on forrán ‘attack’. The family bearing this name was connected with the church of Ardstraw in Ulster.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Farnan in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Farnan saw a slight increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Farnan was ranked 25,398 in terms of surname prevalence and this improved to rank 24,762 in 2010, demonstrating an upward shift of 2.5%. The count of individuals with the Farnan surname also experienced growth, increasing from 915 people in 2000 to 1,006 in 2010, marking a rise of approximately 9.95%. However, the proportion per 100,000 population remained consistent at 0.34 across both years.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#25,398	#24,762	2.5%
Count	915	1,006	9.95%
Proportion per 100k	0.34	0.34	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Farnan

In regard to ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some shifts over the decade. The percentage of people with the Farnan surname who identify as White slightly decreased from 94.75% in 2000 to 94.43% in 2010. Those identifying as Hispanic saw a minor rise from 3.06% to 3.08%. Notably, there were no individuals with the Farnan surname who identified as Black, American Indian, or Alaskan Native in either census year. The group identifying as Two or More Races saw a significant relative increase of 27.52%, growing from 1.09% to 1.39%. Interestingly, Asian/Pacific Islanders appeared in the 2010 data, making up 0.80% of those bearing the Farnan surname, whereas they had not been represented in the 2000 data.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.75%	94.43%	-0.34%
Hispanic	3.06%	3.08%	0.65%
Two or More Races	1.09%	1.39%	27.52%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.8%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%