Foweather Family History

From Fawether in Bingley (WR Yorks), which by 1160 had become a grange belonging to Rievaulx Abbey (NR Yorks). The place-name is first recorded in the early 12th century as Faghadre and derives from Old English fāg and fāh, northern Middle English faw and fah ‘multi-coloured’ + Old English hǣddre, Middle English heddre, hader, hather ‘heather’. By the 16th century (and probably a good deal earlier), it was being re-interpreted by folk etymology as a nickname containing the word weather, sometimes as Fairweather and otherwise as Fawe(a)ther (1616 and 1636) and eventually Foweather (1779 in Place-Names of WR Yorks).

The same developments are recorded in the surname but with the additional modification of Foweather to Standard English Foulweather, as though it were the name in (2) below. This change apparently stems from Middle English f(o)ul wedir ‘foul weather’, i.e. ‘wet and stormy’, the opposite of Fairweather, and perhaps alluding to a foul temper.

This is the origin of the modern name that has been given in standard surname dictionaries from Reaney Dictionary onward. However, the medieval Hunts family name, which clearly has this origin, seems to have died out before the end of the 14th century.

No evidence has been found to link this nickname to the modern family name, except by way of folk etymological misinterpretation of the name in (1).