Haugh
A topographic surname for someone who lived by a haugh—a riverside meadow or low-lying nook of land.
The #9,174 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 86,775 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from the old English place-word haugh, meaning a low-lying meadow, riverside flat, or sheltered nook of land. The word is often linked with Old English healh and Old Norse hâlkr/related forms, both carrying the sense of a corner, recess, or piece of enclosed land. In surname use, it usually began as a local-by-place name for someone who lived near such a feature.
History
The name appears in medieval and later records mostly as a topographic or habitational byname, especially in northern England. Related forms such as Halgh, Hough, and Greenhalgh show the same landscape word in different spellings, and the pronunciation has varied by region. In some cases it was also preserved in compound place-names and later inherited as a family surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older surname studies, Haugh is often grouped with a whole family of spellings built from the same landscape word, including Greenhalgh and Ridehalgh.
From the historical record
“Rl DEH AUG H (Eng.) Bel. to Ridehalgh (La:ncs), ,17th cent. Rydehalgh [The second element is the Dial. E. halgh (found also as haugh, with common vocalization of /), a riverside meadow, a corner, O.N.E. halc= O.W.Sax. healh, a corner. In the absence of early forms the first element is quite uncertain : it may…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)