Family name origins & meanings
- English and Scottish : metonymic occupational name for a hatter or nickname for someone noted for the hat or hats that he wore. Some early forms such as Thomas del Hat (Oxfordshire 1279) and Richard atte Hatte (Worcestershire 1327) indicate that the word was also used of a hill or clump of trees; so in these cases the surname must have been topographic in origin.
- South German : from a short Germanic personal name, Hatto (derived from compound names with the first element hadu ‘battle’, ‘strife’).
- Frisian : from a personal name, a short form of any of the various compound names formed with Hade- as the first element, for example Hadebert.