Floyer Hayes shown on a 1765 map of the
City of Exeter, Devon, by Benjamin Donn. Many open spaces around the outside of the City walls are shown as suffixed "Hay", such as Shill Hay, Southern Hay,
Northern Hay, Fryers Hay, Bon Hay
-hay (also hays, hayes, etc.) is a
place-name word-ending common in England. It derives from the
Old English word hege[1] or haga,[2]Middle Englishheie,[3] in
Icelandichagi,[4] meaning "an enclosed
field", and is from the same root as the English word "
hedge", a structure which surrounds and encloses an area of land,[5] from the Norman-French haie, "a hedge".[6] Haw (from O.E. haga) and Hay (from O.E. hege) are cognate and both
mean "hedge".[7]
Examples
Cheslyn Hay, Walsall, meaning "a fenced or hedged enclosure", here perhaps around an ancient
cromlech or burial-mound.[8]