Family name origins & meanings
- English (Yorkshire) : habitational name from a place called Hey.
- Dutch : topographic name for someone who lived on a heath, Dutch hei, heide.
- German : metonymic occupational name for a grower or mower of grass, from Middle High German höu ‘grass’, ‘hay’.
- North German (Frisian) and Dutch : from a Germanic personal name formed with hag ‘fence’, ‘enclosure’ as the first element.
- South German : occupational name from Middle High German heie ‘ranger’, ‘warden’, ‘guard’ or a topographic name from Middle High German haie ‘protected wood’.