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Updated June 9, 2019

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’.

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