This notable surname is found in variant forms as Hebblewhite, Ebblethwaite and Hebblewaite. It is chiefly associated with Yorkshire and derives from the placename Heblethwaite situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The name Heblethwaite is a compound word from the Middle English dialect 'Hebble' meaning a plank-bridge, and the Northern Middle English 'thwaite', a meadow. The associated Old Norse word 'thveit', refers to a cutting or pasture. We might imagine the original Hebblethwaite ancestor as a dweller by a bridge in a clearing. Other 'thwaites'; are found in northern England as Braithwaite Postlethwaiet and Satterthwaite. There was a John Ebyllthwayte in 1455, a John Epulweyte in 1481 and a Johanna Hebbylewhayt in 1526. The christening of one Jenet Hebblewhite was recorded at Howden in Yorkshire on April 26th 1603.The Coat of Arms most associated with the family of Sedbergh and Malton, county Yorkshire has the blazon of a silver shield thereon two blue palets, on a gold canton a black mullet pierced. The crest being, out of a ducal coronet a demi wolf. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes de Heblewayt, which was dated 1379, in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns, during the reign of King Richard 11, known as 'Richard of Bordeaux', 1377 - 1399. 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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