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From: "Dick Chandler" <>
Subject: [HADDOW] Origin of the HADDOW surname
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:59:54 -0700


I would value opinions on the following:
Like many British surnames, the Scottish name Had[d]ow originates from the
name of a habitation - Haddo in the former county of Aberdeen (now part of
the Grampian region) [per "A Dictionary of Surnames" by Patrick Hanks and
Flavia Hodges]. The origin of that name is said to be the Middle English
for "half", plus the Gaelic dabhach, which is a measure of land equivalent
to four ploughgates (so the name means "two ploughgates"). A plough worked
by eight oxen was capable of bringing 104 acres into tillage in a year. A
ploughgate was therefore the name that was given to 104 acres of arable
land, and a "half dabhach" or "hadabhach" (being half of four ploughgates)
is therefore 2 x 104 = 208 acres of land. So it could reasonably be said
that the name Haddow means 208 acres.

The earliest known bearer of the name (Had[d]ow) is said to be Alanus de
Haldawach, who was excommunicated in 1383. So the name Had[d]ow is
considered by experts on family names to have evolved from Hadabhach through
Haldawach. "A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue Volume 2 D-G" has
alternative spellings and pronunciations of "dabhach", including "dauch" and
"daach". Given these variations, the name can become Hadauch or Hadaach.
The reason I am interested in possible variations of the Haddow surname is
that my step-children have a British ancestor William Haddow of Pennington,
Lancashire (probably the Pennington one mile south-west of Ulverston [whose
parish church is St Michael and the Holy Angels], rather than the Pennington
near Wigan [whose parish church is Christ Church in the ancient parish of
Leigh] who married Agnes Boulton of Baycliff (on the coast, three miles
south of Ulverston) at the Parish Church of Saint Cuthbert in
Aldingham-in-Furness (on the coast, one mile south of Baycliff) on 21st
February 1767. During his life, William Haddow's name appeared at different
times as Hadnow, Haddah, Haddey and Haddaw, and he himself may have been the
son of a William Haddock. His descendants finally settled to using the
surname Hadath or Haddath, though one line has continued to use the name
Haddow to this day. It is vital to remember that, prior to 1800, most
people could not read or write, so they would rely totally on the sound of a
name, not its spelling.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone else who has encountered
surname variants like this, or who has other opinions on the origin of the
Haddow surname.

Dick Chandler in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada

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