Explore the Family Name Fernald

The meaning of Fernald

Altered form of French Fernel, itself a shortened form of a derivative of Old French ferron ‘blacksmith, ironmonger’. History: This surname was brought to North America from England. It is listed along with its original form Fernel in the (US) National Huguenot Society’s register of qualified Huguenot ancestors.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of Fernald as a surname has seen a slight drop between 2000 and 2010. In the year 2000, the surname ranked 14,168 with nearly 1,945 individuals bearing it. By 2010, however, the rank had dropped to 15,289 with a count of 1,920, marking a decrease of 7.91% in rank and 1.29% in count. The proportion per 100k also decreased by about 9.72%, from 0.72 in 2000 to 0.65 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,168	#15,289	-7.91%
Count	1,945	1,920	-1.29%
Proportion per 100k	0.72	0.65	-9.72%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Fernald

In terms of ethnicity, the census data reveals shifts in the distribution amongst those with the Fernald surname between 2000 and 2010. The majority identified as White, although the percentage decreased slightly from 96.09% in 2000 to 93.91% in 2010. There was significant growth in the Hispanic and Black populations, which increased by 63.43% and 175.00% respectively. The percentage of those identifying as two or more races saw a small decrease of 6.72%, and a new group emerged in 2010 with 0.36% identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native. An increase was also noted in the Asian/Pacific Islander category, rising from none in 2000 to 0.63% in 2010. This data is based on the Decennial U.S. Census.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.09%	93.91%	-2.27%
Hispanic	1.75%	2.86%	63.43%
Two or More Races	1.34%	1.25%	-6.72%
Black	0.36%	0.99%	175%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.63%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.36%	0%