Where the Fernandez name comes from

Fernandez is a Spanish patronymic surname meaning "son of Fernando". The name Ferdinand behind it is Germanic, and in Gothic, Frid-nand, it meant "brave traveler". The Old Galician-Portuguese form was built the same way, from Fernando and the suffix -ez, "son of", and was also written Fernandiz. The Portuguese version of the surname is Fernandes.

In Al-Andalus the name took an Arabized form, Ibn Faranda, used by the Mozarabs and Muwallads. A Fernandez appears on the list of officers and sailors of the first voyage of Columbus. The name is common in Spanish speaking countries and former colonies, and in the Philippines it arrived as a borrowing from Spanish.