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Attested
Found in inscriptions or medieval manuscripts.
Fehu is the first rune of the Elder Futhark and writes the sound /f/. It appears in the earliest complete rune row, carved on the Kylver stone from Gotland (around 400 CE).
No Elder Futhark inscription records the names of the runes. The names come from much later manuscripts.
The medieval rune poems name this rune fé (Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic) and feoh (Old English). The Norse poems tie it to strife among kin; the Old English poem says wealth is a comfort but must be shared freely. These poems belong to the later Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon traditions, not the Elder Futhark.
Reconstructed
Scholarly reconstruction from linguistic evidence.
The Proto-Germanic name is reconstructed as *fehu, meaning "cattle" or "movable wealth," based on related words such as Gothic faihu, Old Norse fé, Old English feoh, and German Vieh.
In practice today
How people use this rune now, in divination, magic, and devotion. Valid in its own right, and labeled modern so it isn’t mistaken for history.
In modern rune divination, fehu is usually read as wealth, abundance, or prosperity. Ralph Blum's The Book of Runes did much to popularize this system of meanings.
Practice today: wyrd, galdr, and other old words people use when working with the runes now.