Date
Meaning & History
occupational name from Middle English Old English hine "servant member of a household" also "farm laborer" (such as a herdsman or shepherd). Originally a collective term for a body of servants from an Old English plural noun hiwan "household" in early modern English it commonly acquired excrescent -d (see Hinde ). Evidence from Nottinghamshire shows that some bearers of the name were wealthy freemen which suggests that their eponymous ancestors were not farmhands but senior members of a lord's household. From the late 15th century onward in western England from south to north a hine or hind also denoted a farm steward or manager a sense that may be relevant to the surname in northwestern England where hereditary naming had not been fully established by the 16th century.