Show ContentsHovey History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The name Hovey is an ancient Anglo-Saxon name that was given to a person who was a person with the characteristics of an owl. Often nicknames described strong traits or attributes that people wished to emulate in a specific animal. In the pre-Christian era, many pagan gods and demigods were believed to be a mixture of animals and humans, such as the Greek god Pan who was the god of flocks and herds and was represented as a man with the legs, horns and ears of a goat. In the Middle Ages, anthropomorphic ideas, which attributed human qualities and form to gods or animals, were held about the characters of other living creatures. They were based on the creature's habits. Moreover, these associations were reflected in folk-tales, mythology, and legends which portrayed animals behaving as humans.

Early Origins of the Hovey family

The surname Hovey was first found in Gloucestershire where the name Povey is a provincialism for an owl. [1]

Early History of the Hovey family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Hovey research. Another 82 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1613, 1621, 1650, 1652, 1660, 1673, 1679, 1690, 1702, 1705, 1706 and 1743 are included under the topic Early Hovey History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Hovey Spelling Variations

Only recently has spelling become standardized in the English language. As the English language evolved in the Middle Ages, the spelling of names changed also. The name Hovey has undergone many spelling variations, including Povey, Povy and others.

Early Notables of the Hovey family

Notables of this surname at this time include: Thomas Povey (1613-1705) FRS, London merchant and politician, active in colonial affairs from the 1650s, he was a member from 1660 of Charles II's Council for Foreign Plantations.Charles Povey (c. 1652-1743), was an English miscellaneous writer...
Another 44 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Hovey Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Hovey Ranking

In the United States, the name Hovey is the 8,130th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. [2]

Ireland Migration of the Hovey family to Ireland

Some of the Hovey family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 56 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Hovey migration to the United States +

To escape the unstable social climate in England of this time, many families boarded ships for the New World with the hope of finding land, opportunity, and greater religious and political freedom. Although the voyages were expensive, crowded, and difficult, those families that arrived often found greater opportunities and freedoms than they could have experienced at home. Many of those families went on to make significant contributions to the rapidly developing colonies in which they settled. Early North American records indicate many people bearing the name Hovey were among those contributors:

Hovey Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • Daniel Hovey, who arrived in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1637 [3]
Hovey Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • James Hovey, who landed in Virginia in 1704 [3]
Hovey Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • George Hovey, who arrived in New York in 1822 [3]

Canada Hovey migration to Canada +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Hovey Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century
  • Dan'l, Hovey Jr., who landed in Nova Scotia in 1760
  • Mr. Robert Hovey U.E. who settled in Canada c. 1784 [4]

Contemporary Notables of the name Hovey (post 1700) +

  • Nilo W. Hovey (b. 1906), American clarinetist, composer, conductor and music educator
  • Ann Hovey (1911-2007), American chorus girl and film actress of the 1930s
  • Tim Hovey (1945-1989), American child actor of the 1950s; he later became the road manager for the rock band Grateful Dead and later served as chief audio engineer for the band
  • Charles Mason Hovey (1810-1887), American nurseryman, seed merchant, journalist and author of horticultural books, best known for his two-volume large quarto, The Fruits of America, member of the Royal Societies of London and of Edinburgh
  • Charles Fox Hovey (1807-1859), American businessman and abolitionist who founded C.F. Hovey and Co., a department store on Summer Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Charles Emerson Hovey (1885-1911), American officer in the United States Navy, eponym of the USS Hovey (DD-208)
  • Frederick "Fred" Howard Hovey (1868-1945), American male tennis player who won the US Open in 1895
  • Charles Edward Hovey (1827-1897), American educator, college president, and brevet major general in the United States Army during the American Civil War, eponym of Fort Hovey, near Ironton, Missouri
  • Richard Hovey (1864-1900), American poet, best known for writing the Dartmouth College Alma Mater, "Men of Dartmouth", son of Major General Charles Edward Hovey
  • Alvin Peterson Hovey (1821-1891), American Union general during the American Civil War, Indiana Supreme Court justice, and the 21st Governor of Indiana from 1889 to 1891
  • ... (Another 5 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)


  1. Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
  2. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  3. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  4. Rubincam, Milton. The Old United Empire Loyalists List. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1976. (Originally published as; United Empire Loyalists. The Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada. Rose Publishing Company, 1885.) ISBN 0-8063-0331-X


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