Hackney Family History

English:: habitational name from Hackney in Greater London named from an Old English personal name Haca (genitive Hacan) + ēg ‘island dry ground in marshland’. Perhaps from Middle English hakenei (Old French haquenée) an ambling horse or mare especially one considered suitable for women to ride; perhaps therefore a metonymic occupational name for a breeder or keeper of such horses and short for Hakeneyman.

This surname has also been found in Scotland since medieval times. Variant of Hockney with unrounding of the vowel. The surname Hockney in East Anglia is possibly a variant of Oakley or Hockley possibly habitational names from Oakley in Suffolk.

Interchange of [l] and [n] is not unusual. Otherwise the surname is a variant of Hocknell which itself is a variant of the habitational name Hockenhull (from Hockenhull Cheshire) or Hucknall (from Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire or Hucknall Tokar in Nottinghamshire).