Hayland Family History
Hayland Surname Meaning
For someone who lived at a place known as ‘the hay land’ or ‘the enclosed land’. Middle English hai hei can represent either Old English hēg ‘hay mown grass’ or Old English gehæg geheg ‘fence enclosure’. The 1255 example below is apparently formed with Middle English (Old French) la(u)nde ‘open space in woodland woodland pasture’ but the term is sometimes difficult to tell apart from Middle English (Old English) land ‘piece of land’.
The 1279 Surrey name refers to Haylands Farm in Lingfield. Some of the following post-medieval bearers may alternatively belong with (2) or (3), perhaps sometimes an altered form of Hayling.
Compare Thomas Hailing 1799 in
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016