Origin
Finn : 1: Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Finn ‘descendant of Fionn’ a byname meaning ‘white’ or ‘fair-haired’; it is often found Anglicized as White. This name is borne by several families in the west of Ireland.2: English and Scottish: from the Middle English personal name Fin(n) (Old Norse Finnr Fin originally ‘Finn’) used both as a byname and as a short form of various compound names with this first element.3: English (Kent of Norman origin): variant of Finnis a habitational name from Fiennes Pas-de-Calais France. See Fines 3.4: German: ethnic name for someone from Finland.
Finberg : 1: Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Feinberg.2: Swedish: probably an ornamental name from fin ‘fine’ or finn ‘Finnish’ + berg ‘mountain hill’. This surname is also found in Finland but it is very rare in both countries. In North America it may also be an altered form of the more common variant Finnberg.
Finley : 1: Scottish and Irish: from the Gaelic personal name Fionnlagh (Old Irish Findlaech) from fionn ‘white fair’ (see Finn) + laoch ‘hero’ reinforced by an Old Norse name based on finn ‘Finn’ + leikr ‘fight’ or ‘hero’. The name is common in Ireland as well as Scotland.2: English: habitational name from one or more lost unidentified or altered placenames so named such as Philleyholme Dorset (recorded as Finelegh in 1280) derived from Old English fīna ‘wood-pecker’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’. Also a variant of Findlow from Finlow Hill in Over Alderley Cheshire (from Old English fīn ‘heap’ + hlāw ‘mound hill’ meaning ‘heaped mound’).
Finne : 1: Irish English Scottish and German: variant of Finn 1 2 and 4.2: Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farms so named from finn ‘matgrass (Nardus stricta)’ or finn ‘Lapp’ + -e from vin ‘meadow’.3: Danish: habitational name from various fields or places so named in Germany.4: North German: nickname for a sponger or freeloader or for an ugly old woman from Middle Low German vinne ‘pimple blackhead’.
Finner : 1: German: topographic name from an agent derivative of Old High German fenni Middle Low German and Old Frisian fenne ‘bog’ (see Fenn).2: German: ethnic name for a Finn (see Finn 4).3: English: possibly a variant of Fenner.
Finney : 1: English: habitational name from any of several places called from Old English and Old Norse finn ‘coarse grass’ + Old English (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’ or ēg ‘island land partly surrounded by water’ such as the lost place Fynney in Cheddleton Staffordshire (recorded as Fyneye in 1320) Fenay in Almondbury (Yorkshire) Finney in Croston (Lancashire) Finney Hill in Kingsley (Cheshire) and perhaps also Fenny Rough in Chaddesley Corbett (Worcestershire). Compare Feeney.2: English: habitational name perhaps also from Vinals Farm in Cuckfield or Vinehall in Mountfield (both in Sussex) or Viney's Wood in Crundale (Kent); or from some other place described in Middle English as a fin-haw (Old English fīn-haga) ‘wood-heap enclosure’.3: Irish: from Ó Fidhne see Feeney 1.
Marvin : 1: English (mainly Leicestershire and Lincolnshire): from the Middle English personal name Merefin Merevin Old English Merefin. This is probably formed with Old English mere ‘sea’ + Finn (a personal name derived from the ethnic name). Alternatively it may be a borrowing of an unrecorded Old Norse name Møra-Finnr.2: Slovenian: nickname from marvin the name of a tart light red wine.3: French: unexplained.
Vinn : variant of Finn with voicing of initial /f/ to /v/. Compare Thomas Finn 1670 Alaxander Vinn 1686 in IGI (Urchfont Wilts).
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
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