Halkett

Halkett (/hɔːkɛt/) is a Scottish surname of Doric English (Anglo-Norman) origin.

The Halkett surname originated in the Hawks Wood, Renfrewshire, Scotland; the family seat was at Pitfirrane Castle near Dunfermline.

The name is derived from 'hawk' /hɔːlk/ and 'head' /hi:d/ (Doric pronunciations). Being attentive to the Scots phoneme-grapheme link, the '-aw' in 'hawk' is spelt '-al' (pron. /ɔːl/), hence its morphological change from 'Haw-' to 'Hal-'. Over time, the surname evolved through auditory elision to 'head' (pron. /hi:d/) being written as '-et'/'-ett'/'-ette' (pron. /ɛt/). 'Halkett' is one such variant. By extension, surname variants ending in -head/-hede/-haide/-heid remain closer to the original 'Hawks Head' spelling than 'Halkett'.

Variants of Halkett include Halket, Halkette, Halkhead, Halkhede, Halkhaide, Halkheid and Halkheide, Hackett, Hacket, and Haket.

Notable people with the surname include:

See also
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.