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Surname Etymology and Meaning of HARE

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. Irish (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍr, meaning ‘long-lasting’. In Ireland this name is found in County Armagh; it has also long been established in Scotland.
2. Irish: Anglicized form of Ó hAichir ‘descendant of Aichear’, a personal name derived from the epithet aichear ‘fierce’, ‘sharp’. In Ireland this name is more commonly Anglicized as O’Hehir.
3. English: nickname for a swift runner (possibly a speedy messenger) or a timorous person, from Middle English hare ‘hare’. However, the surname Ayer and its variants was sometimes recorded as Hare.
4. English: topographic name from an Old English hær ‘rock’, ‘heap of stones’, ‘tumulus’.
5. French: according to Morlet, an occupational name for a huntsman, from a medieval French call used to urge on the hounds, or, in the form Haré, from the past participle of harer ‘to excite, stir up (hounds in pursuit of a quarry)’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)