Hathaway

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Hathaway, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Anne
• Lovelace
• Nightingale
• Sinclair
• Darling
• Diamond
• Holloway
• Calloway
• Collins
• Merritt
• Kennedy
• Monroe

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Hathaway is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from OE heaðuwīg ‘war-warrior’ or OG Hathuwic/Hadewic; first attested Hadeuui 1066 Domesday Book (Herefordshire)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• from an (apparently rare) Old English female persond name, HeaduwTg, composed of the elements headu ‘strife’, ‘contention’ -I- wig ‘war’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• topographic name for someone who lived by a path across a heath, from Middle English hathe ‘heath’ + weye ‘way’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• English (mainly central southern England and South \Vales):

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, A surname from Old English.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Anne Hathawayb. 1556GBwife of William Shakespeare (1556-1623)
• Henry Hathawayb. 1898USAmerican film director and producer (1898-1985)
• William Dodd Hathawayb. 1924USAmerican politician (1924-2013)
• Stanley K. Hathawayb. 1924USAmerican politician (1924-2005)
• Donny Hathawayb. 1945USAmerican singer-songwriter and musician (1945-1979)
• Lalah Hathawayb. 1968USAmerican singer
• Noah Hathawayb. 1971USAmerican actor
• Amy Hathawayb. 1974USAmerican actress
• Jack Hathawayb. 1982USNaval aviator and NASA astronaut
• John Hathawayb. 1987GBBritish martial artist

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them○(machine-generated)

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Hathaway mean, and where does it come from?

(i) from the Old English female personal name Heathuwlg, literally ‘strife-war’; (ii) person who lives by a path across a heath. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

How do you pronounce Hathaway?

A machine transcription gives /ˈhæθəˌweɪ/ (IPA) for English.

How common is the name Hathaway?

In the United States, the national register counted 18,401 people named Hathaway in 2010, about 1 in 18 thousand residents.

In which country does Hathaway have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 18 thousand people named Hathaway, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled hathaway.