Origin of The Name
The family name is derived from that of several villages called La Haye in the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy, France. The word, haye comes from haia, a hedge, which in modern French is haie. It can also mean "stockade", but it may have been used here because this part of Normandy is characterized by centuries-old interlocking hedgerows (bocage). The French, de la Haye, appears in Latin documents as de Haya The name has evolved into English as Hay and rendered into Gaelic as Garadh. According to George Fraser Black, the Gaelic form of Hay, MacGaradh, was merely an invention of John Hay Allan, also known as John Sobieski Stuart, author of the dubious Vestiarium Scoticum.
Read more about this topic: Clan Hay
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