Ffoulkes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of Welsh origin, borne by various people in Britain and elsewhere, such as the character Captain Ffoulkes in Anthony Hope's novel
2. A Welsh family name carried by individuals across Britain and beyond, notably a figure in Anthony Hope's adventure novel The Prisoner of Zenda
3. A Welsh-origin family name found among people in Britain and abroad, perhaps best known from a character in Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda

Etymology: Ffoulkes is a Welsh surname, and its shape reflects a Welsh naming habit rather than a single coined word. The name is a Welsh form of "Fulk," the Old French and Germanic personal name (from Old High German "Folkhard" or similar roots, meaning roughly "people" plus "hardy" or "strong"), which reached Wales through Anglo-Norman settlers after the Norman conquest of England. Welsh speakers adapted such imported names to their own sounds, and the "ff" spelling represents the Welsh voiceless "f" sound, which is written "ff" in Welsh orthography. Surnames of this kind were often formed from a father's given name, so the family took its name from an ancestor called Fulk or a similar personal name. The surname spread across Wales and the Welsh borders in the medieval and early modern periods, and it appears in records as a hereditary family name well before surnames were fixed by law. Its spelling varies in older documents, and modern bearers use the form with the double "f" and "lk" ending in English-language records.