Hai meaning | Last name Hai origin

Surname Hai is form of Hay. Anglo-Saxon haeg, French haie, a hedge, and that which it encloses—a field or park. The map of Normandy shows many localities called La Haie, and from one of these, doubtless, came, in early Norman times, if not actually at the Conquest, the family once eminent in England and still so in Scotland. The name was written De Haia and De la Hay. King Henry I gave to Robert de Haia the lordship of Halnaker, county of Sussex, and so early as the close of the XII. century William de H. passed into Scotland and held the office of pincerna regis or king's butler, temp. William the Lion. From his two sons descend Hay, marquis of Tweeddale, and Hay, earl of Errol, hereditary lord high constable of Scotland. These are well-ascertained facts, but tradition as signs a different origin both to name and family. It asserts that in 980 a yeoman called John de Luz and his two sons by their prowess reinvigorated the army of Kenneth III, when they were on the point of succumbing to the Danes. They took the yokes from the oxen with which they were ploughing, and so belaboured the invaders as to drive them from the field, amidst shouts of Hay! Hay! The king in reward for these services gave the as much land as a falcon could fly round (the lands of Loncarty near Fife ), and in memory of the event the family adopted a falcon for their crest, two husbandmen with ox-yokes for their supporters, and Hay for their surname.

The lastname is variant form of Hay. Dweller at the hedge or hedged enclosure; keeper of the hedges or fences; one who came from Hayes meaning "enclosure," a common name of minor places in England.

The lastname is form of the Hay. Hedge.