Hovey Family History

English and Welsh: from the personal name Hwfa of uncertain origin. The surname is more frequently found in the explicit patronymic form ap Hwfa ‘son of Hwfa’ (see Povey) and forms with and without ap were still interchangeable in the 16th and 17th centuries.

English: perhaps from an unrecorded Old English personal name Hofig, a pet form of Old English Hofa (of uncertain origin but apparently from hof ‘temple’) + a hypocoristic suffix -ig.

However, the absence of Middle English evidence for either the personal name or the surname leaves this explanation in doubt.

Americanized form of Dutch Hove.