Good morning, everyone! I’m so happy it’s Friday!

I received a thrilling email recently, because it contained name info that I never knew! I absolutely love being surprised by a name or by name info, and the tidbit this mama shared with me is one that’s been dancing around in my head ever since. She wrote,

“I also wanted to tell you, my oldest child and only boy is named Ferris. We liked the name but we were also considering Peter after my husband’s father, and then in a bookstore we said oh why not look up Ferris one more time in a baby name book, and saw ‘Ferris, a form of Peter’. It is so special to us! So if you have any boys looking to honor a Peter without using the exact name, there you go.”

What is this??!! I thought to myself! FERRIS is a form of PETER?? Well, of course I had to go look it up immediately, and it took some digging (Behind the Name only has a user-submitted entry, which notes that it’s a surname with English, Irish, and Scottish usage, but doesn’t offer any further info other than it might also be related to Fergus), but I did eventually find this from a new-to-me site, Think Baby Names:

“Ferris as a boys’ name is of Irish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Ferris is ‘rock’. Anglicized spelling of Phiarais, of Piaras, a Gaelic form of Peter. May also come from a surname, originally a form of Fergus. See Hamish for a similar derivation from a vocative. Brought to attention in the 1980s by the movie ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off‘.”

You know how wary I am of almost all baby name-meaning sites, but I was impressed with the Think Baby Names entry, and found confirmation of the connection in Irish Names and Surnames by Rev. Patrick Woulfe (available online at Library Ireland):

“… the family being probably descended from a person called Ferris O’Helie (Pierce Healy)” (source)

and

“Mac PHIARAIS — M’Fearis, Mac Feerish; ‘son of Piers’; a variant of Mac Piarais; very rare” (source)

There’s also a street in Ireland called “Corrán Fhearann Phiarais” in Irish and anglicized as “Farranferris Crescent” (“Fhearann Phiarais” becoming “Farranferris”).

Isn’t that all so cool! So, like the mama who wrote to me said, if you have any boys looking to honor a Peter without using the exact name, there you go. Have a great weekend!

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Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation here.

For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!