Hays
Usually a variant spelling of Hayes, a surname from English place-names or, in some cases, from a hedge-related place-name.
The #1,021 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,030 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hays is generally treated as a spelling variant of Hayes. In English surname work, Hayes is commonly traced either to place-names such as Hayes in Kent and Middlesex, or to a topographic word for a hedge or enclosure, from Old English and related medieval forms. A smaller stream of the name in Scotland and northern England may connect with Anglo-Norman French haie, meaning "hedge," which is closely related in sense.
History
The form appears in historical surname lists as a variant of Hayes, and the spelling Hays has been used alongside Hayes and other close forms such as Haze. In Scotland, writers on local surnames also linked the name to French haie and noted families long established in places such as Inverness-shire. Because the same spelling can reflect several different sources, bearers of Hays do not all share one single origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older local-name scholarship, Hays was sometimes grouped with Haig because both were seen as coming from a word for a hedge or enclosure.
From the historical record
“See Noakes. HAYS. Hayes, parishes in Kent and Middlesex. HAYSTACK. Said to have originated from a foundling. HAYTER. The personal name Haitar, which occurs in Germany in the IX. cent. Ferg. It ma}' however be local, from the hundred of Haytor in Devonshire. HAYTON. Parishes, &c., in cos. Cumber-”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom