About the meaning of the names of f orbitals
I would have to say "f" overwhelmingly stands for "fundamental" (not "fine").  

An early (1915) reference is "Some Recent Discoveries in Spectrum Series" Astrophysical Journal, vol. 41, p.323 


  Within each of these three systems there are, in general, four different types of series, known as "principle", "sharp" (second subordinate), "diffuse" (first subordinate), and "fundamental" (Bergmann).  These names are not always very appropriate; for instance the "sharp" series is often diffuse, the "fundamental" may be composed of the faintest lines in the spectrum, but this is not vital.


The fundamental series was discovered by Arno Bergmann in 1907, and is sometimes called the Bergmann series. It was named "fundamental" by William M. Hicks, I beleive in A Critical Study of Spectral Series. Part I: The Alkalies H and He (1911): "F is the symbol for the new series (fundamental) as P.S.D. stand for those already known" (page 57) and "It was my first impression that this would be the same for all the alkalies and the .987 of the earlier discussion. It would be the basis of a fundamental series for each
element, and the letter F which has been attached to it had its origin in this idea." (page 94).

The names existed before orbital theory.  There is no need to investigate f-block elements to observe excitations to f-orbitals.  Electrons of any elment can be excited to an f-orbital. In fact, Bergmann discovered the series in the sodium spectrum.  What was orginially known as the sharp series, were transition to s-orbitals, the primary series transitions to p-orbitals, etc. 

See The Origin of the s, p, d, f Orbital Labels for additional information.