Forbes (name)

Forbes is a surname. It derives from the Scottish Clan Forbes (after a toponym, from Gaelic forba "field"[1]). Descendants of the Scottish clan have also been present in Ireland since the 17th century. The name of an unrelated Irish sept, Mac Fhirbhisigh or MacFirbis, was also anglicised as Forbes.[2]

Notable people with the surname Forbes include:

  1. ^ Henry Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary (1912), p. 150.
  2. ^ Michael C. O'Laughlin, The Book of Irish Families, Great & Small, 2002, p. 108.