Family name origins & meanings
- Hungarian (Hajdú) : from hajtó ‘drover’. Drovers traveled armed, and sometimes ended up as highwaymen, mercenaries, or retainers in the service of local landowners. Hajdú acquired all these meanings, but the surname is chiefly associated with the settlement of some 10,000 mercenaries in eastern Hungary by Prince István Bocskay as a reward for their support. Their towns, dating from 1605, still retain Hajdú- as a first element. The name is also borne by Hungarian Jews, generally as an ornamental adoption of the Hungarian name.