Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements farð "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic *farthi, abstract noun from root *far- "to fare, travel" (PIE *par, "to lead, pass over"), and nanth "courage" or nand "ready, prepared" related to Old High German nendan "to risk, venture."

The name was adopted in Romance languages from its use in the Visigothic Kingdom. It is reconstructed as either Gothic Ferdinanths or Frithunanths. It became popular in German-speaking Europe only from the 16th century, with Habsburg rule over Spain. Variants of the name include Fernán, Fernando, Hernando, and Hernán in Spanish, Ferran in Catalan, and Fernando and Fernão in Portuguese. The French forms are Ferrand, Fernand, and Fernandel, and it is Ferdinando and Fernando in Italian. In Hungarian both Ferdinánd and Nándor are used equally. The Dutch forms are Ferdinand and Ferry.

There are numerous short forms in many languages, such as the Finnish Veeti.

There is a feminine Spanish, Portuguese and Italian form, Fernanda.

• Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., American basketball player who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Fernando Alonso (born 1981), Spanish racing driver
• Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680), Dutch Golden Age painter
• Fernand Braudel (1902–1985), French historian
• Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), British banker
• Ferdinand Budicki (1871–1951), Croatian automotive pioneer
• Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951), German automotive engineer and founder of Porsche
• Ferd Burket (born 1933), American football player
• Ferdinand Coly (born 1973), Senegalese footballer
• Ferdinand Dennis (born 1956), Jamaican-born writer and broadcaster
• Ferd Dreher (1913–1996), American football player
• Ferdinand Fabra (1906–2007), German football manager
• Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929), French marshal, Allied Supreme Commander in World War I
• Ferd Hayward (1911–1988), Canadian racewalker
• Ferran Hurtado (1951–2014), Spanish mathematician and computer scientist
• Ferdinand van Ingen (1933–2021), Dutch Germanist
• Ferdinand Jodl (1896–1956), German World War II general, brother of Alfred Jodl
• Ferd Johnson (1905–1996), American cartoonist
• Ferdinand Kozovski (1892–1965), Bulgarian politician and general
• Ferdinand Kvan Edman (born 1993), Norwegian middle-distance runner
• Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941), American self-styled inventor of jazz
• Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894), French developer of the Suez Canal
• Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), Portuguese sea captain (serving Spain), leader of first expedition to sail around the world
• Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989), Tenth president of the Philippines
• Ferdinand "Thirdy" Ravena III (born 1996), Filipino basketball player
• Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1770-1845, Swiss-American surveyor
• Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875–1951), German surgeon
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), Swiss linguist
• C. Ferdinand Sybert (1900–1982), Attorney General of Maryland and justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals
• Ferran Torres (born 2000), Spanish footballer
• Ferd Wirtz (1885–1947), Luxembourgian gymnast
• Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), German airship mogul
• Ferdinand Mannlicher (1848–1904), Austrian firearms designer
• Ferdinand Zylka (born 1998), German basketball player

• Ferdinand von Aegir, a character from the video game Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
• Ferdinand Griffon, main character played by Jean-Paul Belmondo in the movie Pierrot le fou
• Ferdinand Vaněk, a vaguely autobiographical character in several plays by the Czech playwright Václav Havel
• Ferdinand, a character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest
• Ferdinand the Bull, a mild mannered bull in the children's book The Story of Ferdinand
• Ferdinand the Bull, mascot of the Taranaki Rugby Football Union team
• Ferdinand, a character from the television series Thomas & Friends
• Dr. Ferdinand, a character from the manga Steel Ball Run
• Ferdinand, a character from the action-adventure game L.A. Noire

• Ferd (nickname)
• Ferdy, a list of people and fictional characters named or nicknamed Ferdy or Ferdie
• Ferdinand Porsche (disambiguation)
• Ferdinando (disambiguation)
• Fernand (disambiguation)
• Fernando
• Fernández
• Hernández