Hope Family History

Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived in a small, enclosed valley, Middle English hop(e), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, of which there are examples in North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Clwyd, Devon, Herefordshire, Kent, Sussex, and elsewhere. The surname is most common in Scotland and northern England, and it is also established in Ireland. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads, notably in Hordaland, so named from Old Norse hóp ‘narrow bay’.

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