Haar Family History

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for someone with a copious or otherwise noticeable head of hair, from Middle High German har ‘hair’, German Haar ‘hair’. German: metonymic occupational name for someone who worked with raw flax (Middle High German har) in the production of linen. North German and Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a swamp, from Middle Low German hor, har ‘dirt’, ‘mud’. Probably a shortened form of Dutch van Haar, a habitational name for someone from Ter Haar in Groningen or any of three places named De Haar (in Drente, Overijssel, and Gelderland).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press