Hare Family History

Irish (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍr, meaning ‘long-lasting’. In Ireland this name is found in County Armagh; it has also long been established in Scotland. Irish: Anglicized form of Ó hAichir ‘descendant of Aichear’, a personal name derived from the epithet aichear ‘fierce’, ‘sharp’. In Ireland this name is more commonly Anglicized as O’Hehir. English: nickname for a swift runner (possibly a speedy messenger) or a timorous person, from Middle English hare ‘hare’. However, the surname Ayer and its variants was sometimes recorded as Hare. English: topographic name from an Old English hær ‘rock’, ‘heap of stones’, ‘tumulus’. French: according to Morlet, an occupational name for a huntsman, from a medieval French call used to urge on the hounds, or, in the form Haré, from the past participle of harer ‘to excite, stir up (hounds in pursuit of a quarry)’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press