The baby name Fern is a gentle nature choice with plenty of potential.
Thanks to Bek for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
MEANING OF FERN: FEATHERY FRONDS
The baby name Fern comes from the Old English word for the plant: fearn.
Beyond that, it’s a little tough to pin down the exact origins of this word. It’s generally believed that fern comes from an older word meaning feather, leaf, or wing. After all, a fern’s feathery fronds are vaguely wing-like.
ABOUT THE PLANT
Maybe the name’s ambiguity is inevitable. Ferns trace to the ancient world. Mesozoic era dinosaurs would’ve munched on them. (Humans can, too – but be careful. Only some ferns are edible.)
Ferns are found pretty much everywhere, on every continent except Antarctica. They’re easy to grow. And because of their unique structure, it can seem as if they grow out of nowhere. (They’re actually waiting underground for the right conditions.)
That last quality explains why folk tradition claims that ferns can bestow invisibility or serve as guides to secret treasure.
The Victorians went wild for ferns, collecting and preserving them. They called it Fern Fever or Pteridomania.
Pteridomania refers to their phylum – pteridophyta. (They’re also referred to as filicophyta.) There are more than 20,000 types of ferns in all, as well as a few not-ferns that we lump together.
FERNANDO and FRIENDS
Some longer names begin with Fern, chiefly Fernando and Fernanda.
But that’s just coincidence. These romance language takes on Ferdinand have Gothic roots. They gained in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, eventually becoming royal names across Europe.
FERN ARABLE
Famous Ferns are few. Actress Fern Fitzgerald appeared on Dallas back in the 1970s. In the 1940s, the NHL’s Fernand Majeau of the Montreal Canadiens was known as Fern.
The baby name Fern’s biggest boost comes from a novel.
EB White wrote Charlotte’s Web in 1952.
It’s the story of a barn spider’s efforts to save Wilbur the Pig from the butcher’s block. A classic, beloved tale, Charlotte’s Web is mostly about the animals. But farm girl Fern Arable is also a significant character. She rescues Wilbur – the runt of the litter – and sets the book’s events into motion.
Fern is kind and thoughtful, the kind of character likely to inspire parents. And the book has remained beloved and widely-read. Film adaptations followed in 1973 and again in 2006.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME FERN?
The baby name Fern has never been wildly popular. But it would’ve been familiar when Charlotte’s Web debuted.
The name ranked in the US Top 1000 for girls every year from 1880 through 1961. It occasionally charted for boys, too.
One possible reason: Fern – or Fearn or Ferne – is sometimes a surname. It almost always related to the plants, though. Just like people took their last names from the trees growing near their home, a field of ferns could lead to the adoption of the last name.
By the 1980s, the baby name Fern teetered on the edge of obscurity. In several years, fewer than a dozen girls received the name. This continued into the 2010s, when the pattern shifted.
The baby name Fern has risen in use recently. As of 2023, the name was given to 156 girls – the highest count since the 1960s.
ECOVINTAGE POSSIBILITY
With names like Hazel and Willow at the top of the popularity charts, the baby name Fern could fit right in.
It’s ecovintage: an antique named borrowed from the natural world, with a green, ecological vibe.
With spare, straightforward names like Ivy and Sage so popular, Fern fits right in.
What do you think of the baby name Fern?
First published on August 18, 2009, this post was revised on August 17, 2024.
When I was little my mother wrote me letters in tiny writing pretending to be a fairy named Fernly (pron Fern-Leigh) who lived in our snowdrop flower patch. When I uncovered the truth I was shattered!
Fern reminds me of that innocence and like my name you’d have extend it to create a nickname: I got Clareabell, she can have Fernly!
Fern is not harsh, or country bumkin. Fern is a tall elegant person. A fresh radiance glows from her. She commands presence, because she is serene. She has beauty, and presence of mind. She may have a quirky name, but she doesn’t sound silly. I should know about Fern, as mine is a very lively 8 year old. In England we have two famous Fern’s, Fern Britton and Fearne Cotton. I prefer Fern spelling. No, nobody teases or bullies her about her name. People think Fern is one fantastic name. Differant, but good.
I love your comment !!!! As I’m a Fern !! I was born in England and now I live in Australia , and no one gets it here and it is not common , most people assume my parents were hippies, but might I add their not well mum maybe a little. So your comment made me really appreciate my name as sometimes I have struggled especially since in Australia everyone has nick names and fern is a hard one to think of a nickname … However I don’t mind the the suggestion of “Fee” that one could go !!
Love your comment! My name is Fern, too. Actually, my nickname but I’m Thai so my name is pretty long and kinda hard to remember. There’re lots and lots of girls with nickname ‘Fern’ here… I have about 6-7 friends whose nickname is Fern.
When I’m abroad, I go with Fern and sometimes people were like ‘why?’…my reply is simple ‘my mom likes it’…I never know that it’s an old name.
I used to hate it at one point because I’m tried of explaining why I’m FERN but at the end of the day, my mom likes the name so I cool with it 😀
P.S. My host sister used to call me ‘Ferny Baby’ since she can’t shorten my name so she thinks that it’s better to make it longer…lol
My husband and I did name our daughter Fern. She is six months old now and she knows her name well. Whenever someone asks her name and we tell them, they always comment. Fern? Why that? That’s an awesome name. So unusual. We ALWAYS have to repeat it, like they didn’t hear it the first time though. F-E-R-N. We wouldn’t change her name for the world but just be prepared to always have to explain where you got the name. People don’t ask when you say Hailey or Ava.
Congrats on your new daughter, Joyce! What a great name. 🙂
I love the name Fern. I have a 15 month-old Pearl, and I always get the same reaction from people. They seem so shocked her name isn’t something like Riley.
I am so in love with the name Fern but no one — not my husband, not my mother, no one else likes it. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I mentioned to people I was thinking about name her Fern, people laughed or screamed. We named her Gloria.
Wow, Gloria is so beautiful! I think you made a wonderful choice.