Hawken Family History

English (Cornwall and Devon): from Middle English Haw, a rhyming pet form of Raw (Ralph) + the diminutive suffix -kin. Hawkyn or Haukyn mean ‘young Ralph’. However, in 13th- and 14th-century handwriting, -u- and -n- are often written identically, and some examples of Haukyn may therefore belong with Hankin.

In The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman (written before 1387?), Langland named his fictional everyman figure ‘Haukyn the actyf man’, which strongly implies that in the late 14th century Haukin was a recognizable pet form of an everyday personal name as Ralph was (see Ralph). Compare Haw 1 and Dawkins.

Sometimes perhaps a variant of Alkin with prosthetic H- and a post-1400 vocalization of Halk- to Hawk-. Alkin was a Middle English personal name, a pet form of names such as Alan, Alexander, and Alice + the diminutive suffix -kin. Compare Alcock.