ff at the beginning of a word (usually a proper name?)

[donald girod]

What is the explanation or origin of a spelling like ffrench? Is it
possibly the case that ff is simply an alternate way to do something
like capitalize? I'm just curious.

[Sam Lowry]

Post by donald girod
What is the explanation or origin of a spelling like ffrench? Is it
possibly the case that ff is simply an alternate way to do something
like capitalize? I'm just curious.

I don't know of any English words that start with ff, therefore I would
assume either a foreign word or some form of reference that should be
explained elsewhere in the book/text.

-SL

[Dan]

Post by donald girod
What is the explanation or origin of a spelling like ffrench? Is it
possibly the case that ff is simply an alternate way to do something like
capitalize? I'm just curious.

Someone accidentally hit the 'f' key one to many times. To my knowledge, it
doesn't mean anything.

[John Dean]

Post by donald girod
What is the explanation or origin of a spelling like ffrench? Is it
possibly the case that ff is simply an alternate way to do something
like capitalize? I'm just curious.

Words that we now spell with a single 'f' at the beginning often appeared a
few centuries ago with a double 'f' though others had only the single 'f'.
Example from the Morte d'Arthur:
http://quartet.cs.unb.ca/tapor/cgi-bin/view-works.cgi?c=middleen.1448&pos=37

4236: The ffelonne with the ffyne swerde freschely he strykes,
4237: The ffelettes of the fferrere syde he flassches in sondyre,
4238: Thorowe jopowne and jesserawnte of gentille mailes!
4239: The freke fichede in the flesche an halfe fotte large;

I'm not sure why, but it's possible that some proper names were written down
in the same fashion and some of those survive today - fforde, ffoulkes,
ffrench and so on. However, some of the owners retain the double 'f' but
capitalise the first one - like Jasper Fforde, author of the "Thursday Next"
books":
http://www.thursdaynext.com/