This interesting surname has (at least) three possible origins, all English. 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 last source is from a female personal name introduced by the Normans after 1066. This is 'Haueis', from the Germanic form 'Haduwidis' and composed of the elements 'Hadu', meaning strife and 'widi', - broad. As a personal name this is first recorded as 'Hawis', in the Curia Regis Rolls of Suffolk, for the year 1208. Examples of the surname recording Robert Hawyse of Oxford in 1279, John de la Hawe of Huntingdon in the same year, and Maurice aate Hawe, rector of Newton, County Norfolk in 1362. In the modern spelling the name is recorded as Hawe, Hawes, and Haws, and 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. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alan del Hawse, which was dated 1272, recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as the Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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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