In this thesis, we will explore the world of hash functions. After a brief overview of the construction and uses of cryptographic hashes, we will then focus almost exclusively on non-cryptographic functions. We delve into the FNV family of hash functions in significant detail, examining their background, structure and motivation. We then introduce some well-known peer functions, against which FNV can be tested. We lay out our test parameters, where we will utilise hash tables, a variety of input types, and explain our choice of load factor, collision management and more. We run rigorous tests measuring distribution, collision resistance and avalanche effect which highlight some significant differences in performance. The observed test results are examined in detail, with explanations provided for the varying performances of the functions. These results also provoked some interesting questions around the accepted methodology for measuring the performance of non-cryptographic hash functions, particularly the relevance of the avalanche effect. We examine published works which reference this metric and discover that, perhaps, its usefulness has been overstated. We finally consider collision resistance in a more abstract sense, examining how each function performs when tested with a more challenging input size.