The first record of any Hockaday in England is the baptism of Thomas, son of Clemt (Clement) Hockaday in Ashwater, Devon in 1563, even though records of births and deaths were recorded from the year 1539. The name appears in other Devon and Cornwall villages within about a forty miles of Bideford, Devon for the succeeding thirty years. [Doyle, James W. 1993. The Hockadays Before Blisland. Tidewater Virginia Families. Vol. 2 (#3) pp. 136-142.]
Doyle attributes the name as a derivation of the French surname "Hochede" which was widespread in Guines, France by the seventeenth century. There was much early commerce between Guines, France and England, particularly in the wool trade. Apparently, a French family named "Hochede" migrated to England and the spelling of the name changed to "Hockaday" to reflect the pronunciation. James Doyle has published several articles in Tidewater Virginia Families on the early families of Virginia and their roots.
The alternate school of thought on the origin of "Hockaday" is that it derived from the medieval festival of "Hock Day" (High Day). During the sixteenth century, people were required to have surnames. It is thought that some people took or were given the name "Hockday" if they were born during the festival. The first "a" of Hockaday was eventually inserted so there would not be three consecutive consonants in the name.
"Hocktide" was the season of the hock days. Hock Monday and Hock Tuesday (the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter) were long kept as festival days with various traditional customs.
Hock Day (Hokeday, hockedai, hokeday, and also called Hock Tuesday) was an ecclesiastical high day or festival commencing the second Tuesday after Easter. It was commemorative of the driving out of the Danes in the days of Ethelred and was celebrated as a day of rough sport and humorous play. It was a traditional day for paying rents, settling debts, satisfying other financial obligations and collection of funds for community purposes. Hock Day in the spring and Michaelmas (29 Sept.) in the fall were the common settlement days. Hock Day is first recorded ca. 1484 and was celebrated up until the reformation. [Bardsley, C. W. (1968). English Surnames: p. 64.; Harrison, H. (1911). Surnames of the United Kingdom: p. 207; various dictionaries]
Scribes, clerks, and census takers often spelled names however they sounded to them. Common alternate spellings for Hockaday are: Hockday, Hokeday, Hoccaday, and Hocheday, plus the French Hochede.
If anyone has anything to contribute on the origin of the surname Hockaday, please contact hockaday@panam.edu)
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