Hathaway
An English surname most likely based on a place-name or an old personal name, with the spelling shaped by an inserted 'a' in some forms.
The #1,966 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,779 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Hathaway is usually treated as English, and older writers connected it either with a place-name or with an old Germanic personal name. Lower specifically linked Hathaway, Hathway, and Hadaway to Old Germanic names such as Hathuwi, Hathwi, and Hadewi, while Bardsley noted it as a spelling with an intrusive 'a' in the same family as forms like Ottaway and Greenaway. The exact original source may not be certain, but the name is clearly old and Anglo-Germanic in shape.
History
Hathaway is best known today through Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, which helped make the surname especially familiar in literary culture. In English records the name appears in several variant spellings, including Hathway and Hadaway, reflecting the instability of medieval and early modern surname forms. Modern usage is especially established in England and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century source quotes a playful poem addressed to Anne Hathaway, showing that the name was already strongly associated with Shakespeare in popular culture.
From the historical record
“HATFULL. A corruption of Hatfield. HATHAWAY. HATHWAY. HAD- AWAY. Correspond with the Old Germ, names Hathuwi, Hathwi, Hadewi. Fer- guson. HATHERLEY. Two parishes In co. Gloucester. HATHORNE. See Hawthorne. HATLEY. HxVTELY. Parishes In”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom