Haas Family History

German Dutch and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German, Middle Dutch hase, German Hase ‘hare’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a hare (i.e. for a swift runner or perhaps a timorous person) or a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a hare.

As a Jewish name, it can also be an artificial name or one of names randomly selected from vocabulary words by government officials when surnames became compulsory. This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).

In the Netherlands and Germany, it is in part of French (Huguenot) origin, a translation into Dutch or German of the French surname Lelièvre ‘the hare’ (see Lelievre).

Compare De Haas. German and Dutch: from the personal name Hase with an indistinct origin.