Featherstonhaugh
family name
Featherstonhaugh (generally pronounced as written but occasionally simply "Featherston"), also spelt Fetherstonhaugh and Featherstonehaugh, is an English surname. The name comes from Featherstonhaugh in Northumberland, from the Old English feðere (feather), stān (stone), and healh (corner).
According to Plum Lines, the journal of the P. G. Wodehouse Society, The BBC Pronunciation Dictionary of the British Isles (1983) gives the primary pronunciation of 'Featherston-haw' but also lists alternative pronunciations 'Fanshaw', 'Feston-haw', 'Feeson-hay', and 'Feerston-haw', although no evidence is given of individuals using these variants. Supporting Debrett's Correct Form in pronouncing the name as written is the experience of the barrister Guy Fetherstonhaugh of the established family of that name: "It’s not 'Fanshaw' for me, and I don’t know that any other Featherstonhaughs say that ... Everybody repeats it because they like to sound knowledgeable. If I'm in front of a judge who doesn’t know me, he’ll call me 'Fanshaw' because he thinks it shows that he's in the know". Upon learning his name in fact being 'pronounced as it's spelt', Fetherstonhaugh says, "People always look slightly crestfallen."
Notable people
Francis Fetherston (c. 1575 – after 1624), an English statesman
George William Featherstonhaugh (1780–1866), an English-American geologist
George W. Featherstonhaugh Jr. (1814–1900), an American legislator and businessman
Godfrey Fetherstonhaugh (1859–1928), an Irish politician
F. B. Fetherstonhaugh (1863–1945), a Canadian patent lawyer
Constance Featherstonhaugh (later Benson; 1864–1946), an English actress
Francis Featherstonhaugh Johnston (1891–1963), an Anglican bishop of Egypt
Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh (1887–1971), a Canadian architect
Buddy Featherstonhaugh (1909–1976), an English jazz saxophonist
Mary Featherstonhaugh Frampton (1928–2014), an English civil servant
Robert Fetherstonhaugh (born 1932), an English cricketer
Alexander Featherstonhaugh Wylie (born 1951), a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland
Fetherstonhaugh baronets
Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh (1714–1774), 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh, known as Harry (1754–1846), 2nd Baronet
Artistic and fictional works
The Featherstonehaughs, a British dance company
"Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh", an episode of the TV series Nanny and the Professor.
Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge (the middle name pronounced "Fanshaw", apparently the origin of this idiosyncratic pronunciation which is not encountered in reality) a fictional character in the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse
Marcus Featherstone's terrier "Foon" ("written 'Featherstonehaugh'") in the detective novel Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham (1931).
Harry Featherstonhaugh in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery Books by T.E. Kinsey.
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This entry incorporates text from “Featherstonhaugh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.