This is a dual nationality surname, English or Irish or Anglo-Irish. It is recorded in several spelling forms including Hough, Haugh, Haw, Hawes, and Haws, and when English is a topographical or locational surname. It has (at least) three possible origins. The first is locational from residence at a 'hause', which maybe a neck of land, but was generally a place for gathering animals. The town of Hawes in Yorkshire, has the same meaning, but the surname pre-dates the town. The second possibility is as a patronymic from the medieval given name "Haw". This is itself a diminutive or pet-form of 'Hawkin' or 'Havekin', themselves from the Olde English pre 7th Century 'Hafoc'. The third is from the Gaelic Irish O' hEachard, and is believed to translate as 'the descendant of the pleasant one' or similar, and may be a derivative of the female name 'Cathach' first recorded in the 7th century. Examples of the surname recording include Robert Hawyse of Oxford in 1279, John de la Hawe of Huntingdon in the same year, and Maurice ate Hawe, the rector of Newton, Norfolk in 1362. An interesting recording is that of 'Reginoll Hawes', one of the earliest American colonists, who embarked from London, England, on January 15th 1634, bound for Virginia. Sadly James Haugh left Belfast Lough on the ship 'Roscius of Liverpool', on October 12th 1846, bound for New York. He was escaping from the Potato Famine of 1846 - 1848 which decimated much of the population. Throughout the centuries surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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