Hite
A surname most likely from a nickname for a fair- or white-haired person, or a spelling variant of White.
The #3,034 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,143 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hite is usually treated as a spelling variant of White or of a nickname built on Middle English h(i)te/white, referring to a light complexion, pale hair, or clothing. In older records, initial H- and W- spellings often alternated in ways that make exact derivation hard to pin down. The most likely sense is simply “the white or fair one.”
History
The name appears in English and later American records, and in the United States it is especially familiar as an Appalachian and Midwestern surname. Historical spellings vary, and some families may descend from branches recorded as White, Whit(e), or similar forms. The modern U.S. surname Hite is well established but not especially common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Hite can overlap historically with White- and Height-like spellings, old records sometimes need context from a family line, not just the surname spelling, to identify the right name.
From the historical record
“Capgrave says, * In this same tyme (b. c ao$) lyved the eloquent man which hite (was called) Plautus, and for al his eloquens he was compelled for to dwell with a baxter, and grind his come at a querne.'”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)