Hi! My branch spells it "FARISS," a varient which dates to at least the second quarter of the 19th century. Documents signed by my g-g-gf Samuel Fariss (1797-1862) spelled it that way; we do and my LaFayette, Walker Co., GA cousins (descended by another of Samuel's sons) do also. "Steve Fariss" (died ca. 1960), my grandfather's friend, of Talladega Co., AL, who was from the Amelia Co. VA branch also spelled it that way, and led the two of them to conclude they were distantly related. That presupposes the spelling dated to at least the eighteenth century, which I cannot document. By the way: that is not a capitol "S" at the end of the name in old documents, 19th century & before. I once thought it was an "interior s," as in some languages (i.e., Greek) the form of some consonants varies with its position in the word. More recently, however, I ran across a reference that it represents a "long s" sound, while our more familiar "s" represented a short "s" sound. I do not know the linguistic origin of these differences, but it sounds vaguely Gaelic to me. John Fariss