Frequency: (3570)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English (mainly East Anglia): metonymic occupational name for a sailor, from Middle Dutch hoey ‘cargo ship’.
2. Northern Irish: variant of Howey 2 and Haughey.
3. Scottish: habitational name from some unidentified minor place named Hoy, or from the Orkney island of Hoy, which was named in Old Norse as Háey, from há ‘high’ + ey ‘island’.
4. Danish (Høy): nickname for a tall person, from høj ‘high’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
