The Summerhayes Family

Background

The Summerhayes family appears to have originated from Somerset, and is probably from a topographical name referring to an enclosure (on upland pasture) where animals were kept in summer; Haye is a topographical name for someone who lived by an enclosure, and thus Summerfield, Summerford, Summerhay(e)s, Summer(h)ill are from a field/ford/hayes/hill used in summer. (From Harrison, H. (1918) Surnames of the United Kingdom – A Concise Etymological Dictionary Marland Press). If reference is made to the distribution of the surname in the 1851 census, it is easy to see that the vast majority of the Summerhayes population lived in the Somerset area, particularly around Taunton.

It is therefore suggested that the SUMMERhayes name is a corruption of what was originally SOMERhayes, hence originating in Somerset. There is also a suggestion of this in the name of the supermarket chain, SOMMERFIELD. There are surprisingly few variants of the surname, the most common one being SUMMERHAYS, which was quite common in the last century, but for some reason this appears quite rare now. There have been instances seen where the name was hyphenated into Summer-Hayes, although this would seem to be a little presumptuous as no original documentation has been found with this spelling. Other variants found have been SummerHAISE and SummerHAZE.

Between 1837 and 1900 there were registered in England and Wales 639 births, 287 marriages and 347 deaths. A reasonable estimate is that during this period there were around 400 Summerhayes alive at any one time.

Branches of interest

The branch of main interest to this website was not originally of this surname at all, as it was early in the 1800s that the name was changed from Summers due to circumstances that are still being researched.

Notable people

Albert John Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War
Alfred Walter Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War
Arthur James Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War
Bertram William Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
Charles Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War
Dudley Leycester Summerhays - Lost in the First World War
Edmund Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
Herbert Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
Herbert Stanley Percy Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
John Alexander Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
John Wilson Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War (Canadian)
Reginald Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War
Robert Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War
Samuel Joseph Summerhayes - Lost in the Second World War (Canadian)
Thomas Summerhayes - Lost in the First World War (Canadian)