Hope Family History

Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived in or near a ‘remote enclosed place’ from Middle English and Older Scots hop(e) (Old English hop); or else a habitational name from any of several places called Hope in Cheshire, Devon, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Shropshire, and North Yorkshire.

A hop most often denoted a distant, secluded valley, especially in the West Midlands, northern England, and southern Scotland, but in Essex, Kent, and Sussex it usually referred to an enclosed piece of land or a promontory in a marsh or in wasteland.

In other cases, the name may refer to someone who lived at a small landlocked bay or inlet, or who came from a place so named, such as Stanford le Hope in Essex, Middle Hope in Somerset, and Hope by Bolt Head in Devon (Middle English hop(e), Old English hōp, Old Norse hóp).

The surname is also established in Ireland.

Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads, notably in Hordaland, from Old Norse hóp ‘narrow bay’. Americanized form (translation into English) of French Lespérance ‘hope’ (see Lesperance).