This interesting surname has two distinct possible origins. Firstly, it may be a patronymic form of the medieval male given name "Hain", itself coming from the Old German "Hagano", originally a byname meaning "hawthorn". This name was found in England before the Conquest of 1066, but was popularized by the Normans. In the Danelaw (the northern, central and eastern parts of Anglo-Saxon England in which Danish law and custom were observed), Haine may be derived from the Old Norse "Haghni, Hagne", candinavized versions of the above name. Early examples of the surname include: Ulricus Hagana, in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Peter Hain in the Pipe Rolls of Dorset, dated 1200. Haines may also be of locational origin from a place in Bedfordshire called Haynes. Recorded as "Hagenes" in the Domesday Book, and as "Hagnes", circa 1150 in the Pipe Rolls of that county, the place is so called either from the Olde English pre 7th Century "haga-naess", headland on which stood a hawthorn tree, or from the Olde English "haegen", the enclosure. One William atte Heyene was noted in the 1327 Subsidy Rolls of Somerset, and a Margery Haynes in the Essex County Rolls, dated 1352. William Haines, an early settler in America, was recorded on a "List of the living in Virginia" taken on February 16th 1623. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alice Heynes, which was dated 1327, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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