Family name origins & meanings
- Greek : from the vocabulary word khatzis ‘pilgrim (to Jerusalem)’, from the Arabic hajji ‘pilgrim (to Mecca)’, borne originally by Greek Muslims. Having completed a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a mark of high social distinction. Often, this surname is a reduced form of a surname with Hatzi- as a prefix to a patronymic, naming the ancestor who performed the pilgrimage; e.g. Hatzimarkou ‘son of Mark the Pilgrim’, Hatzioannou ‘son of John the Pilgrim’.