The village of Farnham gets its name from Old English where it means "Fern hemmed-in land" or "Fern homestead/village". The earliest known recording of the village of Farnham is from the Domesday Book, written in 1086, where it appears three times. Farnham was located in the Hundred of Plomesgate in the County of Suffolk and had a population of 18 households; 8 smallholders and 13 free men. Farnham also had one Lord's plough teams and 2 men's plough teams. In addition to this the Domesday Book also had 2 mills and 21 acres of meadow recorded St. Mary's Church was not recorded in the Domesday Book. 1870–72 John Marius Wilson described Farnham, in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, as:A parish in Plomesgate district, Suffolk; near the river Alde and the East Suffolk railway. It has a post office under Wickham Market. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. The church is Norman, with a flint tower, and very good. this he also described the village as having a population of 184 and 46 houses, with property costing around £1,521. He also said the village had an acreage of 1,177.