Hazelhurst

Recorded in various spellings including Hazelhurst, Hazlehurst, Haselhurst and Haslehurst, this is an English surname. It is of locational origins and either describes a person who lived by a hazel wood, or more likely is an identification surname which originates from one of the several villages called Hazelhurst in the counties of Lancashire, Surrey, and Sussex. The derivation is from the Old Norse or Old English pre 7th century words "hesli-hyrst". Locational surnames were either given to the original lord of the manor, or were more often ones given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In this case the early recordings are associated with the same counties so it is possible that these were manorial hereditary surnames. These recordings are those of Henry de Haslehurst in the Subsidy Tax rolls of Lancashire in the year 1332, and far away in Surrey that of John de Haselhurst in the Subsidy Tax rolls for Surrey. Over the centuries the name spelling seems to have been in a continual state of flux between the use of the "s" or the "z", however in so far as it can be claimed that there is a correct spelling, it is arguably with the "s", as that was the Olde English form.