Hindhaugh - Meno

This is a rare and ancient English surname. According to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley, the name originates from a now "lost" medieval village which he believed to have been in the county of Yorkshire, as the first recordings as shown below are from that region. The name probably means either "The hill frequented by hinds (stags)," or Hinds hill, with Hind being the (personal) name of the owner or tenant, and a nickname for a fast runner. Certainly no such place has been found in any of the known gazetters of the British Isles of the past three centuries. There is nothing particularly unusual in that respect as it is estimated that at least three thousand hamlets, villages and even small towns, have disappeared from the the landscape of the British Isles over the past five centuries, and continue to do so even today. Most if not all gave rise to surnames, now often the only public reminder that such a place ever existed. The early recordings are those of Robertus de Hyndagh and the similarly named Robertus Hyndaglh, both of Tickhill in Yorkshire, and who appear in the famous or infamous Poll Tax registers of the county in 1379. Five centuries later we have the recording of Robertd Hindhaugh at the church of St Marys, Kingston up Hull, Yorkshire, on December 22nd 1803 when he married Mary Mays.