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Hersey

HUR-see (rhymes with 'mercy')

A surname with more than one possible root, most likely from a Norman French place name and sometimes linked by older writers to a personal name or nickname.

The #8,689 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,679 Americans shares it.

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Etymology

The strongest historical evidence points to a locational surname: some 19th-century writers derive Hersey from a place-name such as Herseaux in the Low Countries or from a Norman locality like Hercy/Hericy. Other older scholarship tried to connect it with an underlying personal name, especially forms related to Ursula, but that explanation is less secure and may reflect spelling confusion. In practice, Hersey is best treated as a surname formed from a place of origin, with later English spelling variation.

History

The name appears in medieval and post-medieval records in several spellings, including Hercy, Hersee, and Hersey. It is found in England, and later also in American records, where the spelling Hersey became established. Because surname spellings were fluid for centuries, different branches of the family may have converged on the same modern form from more than one source.

Origin

locationalOld FrenchNorman FrenchEnglish

Regions

EnglandNormandyNetherlandsUnited States

Variant spellings

HercyHerseeHearseyHearsey

Fun fact

Older surname dictionaries disagree about this name, which is a good reminder that one modern spelling can hide several different historical origins.

From the historical record

“mark. HERSEY. Local. From Herseaux, in the Netherlands. HEYDEN. Local. From a town in Westphalia, also a town of the same name in South Jutland, Denmark. HEYMAN or HAYMAN. (Sax.) A high man. HEWER, HUER, and ETJER. A person stationed en the sea-shore, to watch and notify the fishermen of the shoals of fish ; from…”

— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names
Confidence: mixed. Sources: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names, British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.), A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan), The Norman People and their existing descendants in the British dominions and the United States, Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.), The Teutonic Name-System applied to the family names of France, England and Germany.

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