Hayes

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.

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

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

• Brooks
• Wells
• Grant
• Graham
• Flynn

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.

Hayes is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name3 spellings in the group

  Also written Hayes︎, Hayès

72 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Hayes is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, dweller by the brushwood (OE); first attested Hugh de la Heise 1197 Eynsham (O)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Rutherford Birchard, I9th US

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, president

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In Irish, This name is very numerous in Munster. It is usually an anglicized form of Ó hAodha. Septs of that name belong to the counties indicated in Map. In Co. Wexford Hayes is Norman, i.e. la Heise or de la Haye as in England. IF Map Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan and Tyrone. See also O'Hea

  as a name·The Surnames of Ireland

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.

• Rutherford B. Hayesb. 1822USpresident of the United States from 1877 to 1881 (1822-1893)
• Helen Hayesb. 1900USAmerican actress (1900–1993)
• Patricia Hayesb. 1909GBBritish actress (1909–1998)

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).

50 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 29 countries.

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

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

Person from a place called Hayes, ‘enclosures’ or ‘brushwood’; or ‘son of Hay’; or from Irish Gaelic 6 hAodha, descendant of Aodh ‘fire’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

Which countries have the most people with the surname Hayes?

In the United States, the national register counted about 194 thousand people named Hayes, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled hayes. After it come United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and South Africa; the country table on this page ranks them.

How do you pronounce Hayes?

In English /heɪz/ (Wiktionary).

How common is the name Hayes?

In the United States, the national register counted 194,246 people named Hayes in 2010, about 1 in 1.7 thousand residents.

How common is Hayes compared with other names?

In the United States, Hayes is the 83rd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.