Hayes Family History

Irish (Cork): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAodha ‘descendant of Aodh’ a personal name meaning ‘fire’. Compare McCoy. In some cases especially in County Wexford the surname is of English origin (see below) having been taken to Ireland by the Normans.

English: variant of Hay with post-medieval excrescent -s. English: topographic name from the plural form of Middle English hay(e) heye heghe ‘enclosure’ (see Hay) sometimes used as a collective noun for a farm especially in Devon where it is a frequent minor placename. Compare Hain.

English: habitational name from either of two places called Hayes (Middlesex Kent) or a topographic name for someone who lived near land overgrown with brushwood or underwood especially young oak or beech. The etymon in each case is Old English hǣse hēse Middle English hese ‘brushwood’ which is also the source of the lost minor placename Heys in Hellingly (Sussex) Northease and Southease (Sussex) and Heys Wood (Kent).

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from one of the French hamlets named La Haise (Eure Ille-et-Vilaine Sarthe). The original sense like that of Old English hǣse (see 4 above) was ‘land overgrown with brushwood or underwood’ and the Norman and English names are difficult to tell apart. The French surname was reintroduced to England after 1685 by Huguenots.

English: variant of Ace with hypercorrect initial H-. French: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure a variant (plural) of Haye. Compare Deshayes. Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from Yiddish name Khaye ‘life’ + the Yiddish possessive suffix -s.