Hockaday History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Hockaday family

The surname Hockaday was first found in Devon at Huxham, a parish, in the union of St. Thomas, hundred of Wonford. 1 2 3 4

Conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of the lands of Huxham, held by Ralph de Pomeroy, a Norman noble from La Pommeraye in Bayeux in Normandy who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086. Part of their castle still remains at Cingueleiz near Falaise.

It is here that the family's first record was found with a very early spelling variation. Robert de Hokesham was listed in the Pipe Rolls for Devon in 1230. 5

Early History of the Hockaday family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Hockaday research. Another 67 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1692, 1715, 1717 and 1768 are included under the topic Early Hockaday History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Hockaday Spelling Variations

It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Hockaday are characterized by many spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Hockaday include Hoxham, Hocksham, Hockham, Hockam, Hocksam, Hoxam and others.

Early Notables of the Hockaday family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was John Huxham (1692-1768), English physician, born at Totnes, Devonshire, the son of a butcher. "On 7 May 1715 he entered as a student under Boerhaave at Leyden, but being unable to stay the requisite three years, he graduated M.D. at Rheims in 1717. He took a house at Totnes, but soon moved to Plymouth. The dissenters generally consulted him, but his practice did not grow...
Another 73 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Hockaday Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Hockaday Ranking

In the United States, the name Hockaday is the 13,039^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 6

Hockaday migration to the United States +

Faced with the chaos present in England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as Australia and Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Hockaday, or a variant listed above:

Hockaday Settlers in United States in the 20th Century

Mrs. Charity Hockaday, (b. 1867), aged 38, Cornish settler from Gunnislake, Cornwall, UK travelling aboard the ship "New York" arriving at Ellis Island, New York on 6th August 1905 en route to New York, USA 7

Contemporary Notables of the name Hockaday (post 1700) +

Jim Hockaday (b. 1964), American former football player who played with the New England Steamrollers in 1988
John M. Hockaday, American politician, U.S. Attorney for Utah, 1856-58 8
David "Dave" Hockaday (b. 1957), English former footballer
Mary Hockaday, British journalist and Head of the BBC Multimedia News

Citations +

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Barber, Henry, British Family Names London: Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row, 1894. Print.
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Cornwall Online Parish Clerks. (Retrieved 3rd May 2018). Retrieved from http://www.opc-cornwall.org/Resc/pdfs/emigration_ellis_island_1892_on.pdf
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 9) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html