This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Haliday,' a name given to a child born on a holy day; compare Hobday, Hockaday, Pentecost, Christmas, Whitsunday, &c.

'And hold wel thyn haliday Heighe til even.—: Piers Plowman, 3664.

Richard Haliday, Buckinghamshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Gerard Haliday, Suffolk, ibid.

Alan Halyday. Rolls of Parliament.

Willelmus Haliday, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johannes Halyday, 1379: ibid.

Adam Halyday, 1379: ibid.

John Haliday, Close Rolls, 37 Henry.

Leonard Hallidaye and Anne Wincoll: Marriage Lic. (London).

1583. Thomas Wallys and Alice Hollidaye. ibid.

1645. Married —John Holyday and Alice Case: Canterbury Cathedral.

The Hallidays of Hoddom, Dumfriesshire, were an old family there, and probably gave their name to Halliday Hill in the parish of Dalton. Thom Haliday was a nephew of Wallace (Henry the Minstrel, Wallacs, VI 535, S. T. S. ed.), and Adam de Halide, juror on inquest at St. Andrews, 1303 (Bain, II, 1350). John Halyday, archer of the East March, 1404 (ibid., IV, 669), John Halliday of Hoddom in record, 1439 (PSAS., XXIII, p. 36), Ambrose Halyday and David Halyday, merchants in Edinburgh, 1479 (Bain, IV, 1457). William Halliday held a tenement in Dumfries, 1506 (Edgar, p. 229), John Halyday, burgess of Dumfries, 1570 (RPC., XIV, p. 66), and another John Hallieday was bailie of Culross in last half of the seventeenth century (BOEC., VIII, p. 120). Grissell Holiday in Corrysholme, 1624 (Dumfries). John Holyday, weaver in Polwart, 1668 (Lauder). The name was carried by Scots to France and appears there as Halliday, vicomte de Ponfaudemer. Haliday 1717, Hallyday 1634. OGer. Halegdag, Get. Heillgtag, are family names.

(English) a name given to one born on a Holy Day [Old English hálig dæg, holy day, Sunday] This Absolon, that jolif was and gay, Gooth with a sencer on the haliday.— Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 3339-40.

A well-known Scottish border clan, who from their great animosity against the Southron are said to have adopted the war-cry or slogan of A Holy Day, (Scottice, "a Haly Day"), because the chiefs and people of Annandale, whenever they made a raid or foray upon the Saxon border, accounted the day spent in rapine and slaughter a holy one. Burke's Commoners, ii. 127. In the XIII. century the name began to be common on the south of the Tweed. There were English Hallidays in our Scottish and French wars under Edw. III. and Hen. V. The Hallidays of the western counties descend from Walter Halliday, called the Minstrel, who was master of the revels to King Edward IV., and acquired lands at Rodborough, co. Gloucester. B.L.G.

The name is derived from the slogan or war cry of the family "a holy day, a holy day."

HALYBURTON.]

Local: from the lands of Halyburton in Berwickshire.

"Holy—day."It is said this name had its origin in the Slogan, or war—cry of a Gaelic clan residing in Annandale, who made frequent raids on the English border. On these occasions they employed the war—cry of "A holyday,"every day, in their estimation, being holy, that was spent in ravaging the enemy's country.

From Halyday, Normandy (Mem. Soc. Ant. Norm. v. 159). Philip and Reginald de Halyday of England, 1194 (Rotuli Curiae Regis).