This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Harvey.' This great personal name had not become so rare in the 12th and 13th centuries that it could escape surnominal honours. On the contrary, it is still found as a fairly familiar personal name up to the beginning of the 14th century. No modern directory, whether in England or the United States, is without representatives of the surname, and in this manner it has secured immortality. The last two centuries has seen the practice made popular of using surnames for baptismal names. Thus the late Bishop of Carlisle was Harvey Goodwin, although for several centuries Harvey has been obsolete as a personal name.

Harvey Dunnyng, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Warin Hervi, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Robert fil. Hervei, Lincolnshire, ibid.

Herveus le Gos, Lincolnshire, ibid.

Harveus Belet, Oxfordshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

From Herve, a Breton personal name introduced into Britain by the Normans. In Latin records Heraeus, Herveius, and Herveus. Herueus, son of Philip Marescall, confirmed the church of Keith to the Abbey of Kelso (Kelso). A donation by John filius Heruei, abb de Varia Capella, is recorded in 1319 (LSC., 91). John Hervy was one of the gustatores vini in Aberdeen, 1398, and bailie in 1400 (CRA., p. 375; SCM., V, p. 14). John Hervi, juror in Edinburgh, 1428 (RAA., II, 61) may be the John Herwy who possessed a tenement there, 1430 (RMS., II, 173). James Hervy received a tenement in Aberdeen, 1470 (CRA., p. 29), John Harvy of the diocese of Aberdeen appears in records of the Scots College of Paris, 1479 (Analecta Scotica, II, p. 30). Andrew Hervy was dean of guild in Edinburgh, 1476 (REG., 411), Thomas Herwy was witness in Aberdeen, 1489 (REA, II, p. 303), and Robert Hervie was member of Huntly Volunteers, 1798 (Will, p. 8). Harve 1550, Harwe 1550, Harwy 1527, Heruie 1577, Herve 1579, Herwie 1633.

(Anglo-French-Teut.) the French Hervé, Old Teutonic Her(i)wig [Old Saxon O.H.Ger. heri = Old English here = Old Norse herr = Gothic harji-s, army + Old Teutonic wíg, war] Herve-us.—Domesday Book.

Herve-us le Gos.—Hundred Rolls Hervé, being the name of a Breton Saint, is commonly derived by French etymologists from the Breton language [huerù = Welsh chwerw, bitter, severe], but the connection, for more than one reason, is very doubtful.

See Harvey.

(English) Descendant of Harvey (bitter, or carnage-worthy).

An ancient Norman personal name-Herve. M. de Gerville in Mem. Soc. Ant. Norman, 1844, observes: "We sometimes call it Hervot. . La Hervurie signifies the habitation of Herve." As a family designation it appears in England in the XII. cent. Osbert de Hervey is styled, in the register of St. Edmundsbury, the son of Hervey. From him according to the Peerage sprang the Herveys, ennobled in England and Ireland, and also (in all probability, from the resemblance of their arms) the De Hervi's and Hervies of Aberdeenshire and other parts of Scotland.

(Saxon.) From here, an army, and wic, a fort.

Or De Bourges. Geoffry Papabos was made Viscount of Bourges 920 (Anselme, iii. 216). Geoffry III., his grandson, rebuilt the Abbey of St. Ambrose, Bourges, 1012, and 1037 was at war with the Lord of Chateau-Raoul. He had issue: 1. Geoffry N., whose son Stephen, Viscount of Bourges, left Matilda de Sully his niece and heir; 2. Maldalbert, father of Hervey. Hervey de Bourges (Bituricensis), cousin of Stephen the viscount, ac­companied the Conqueror, and 1086 held a great barony in Suffolk (Domesday). Henry Fitz-Hervey, his son, witnessed a charter of Roger de Clare (Mon. i. 731). The barony passed from the family t. Stephen. Hervey, brother of Henry, held fiefs of Peché iu Suffolk, and his son paid a fine 1130 (Rot. Pip.). Osbert Fitz-Hervey, 1165, held a fief from Peché, being then styled ‘De Haffield,’ from one of his lordships (Lib. Niger). He was, t. Richard I. and John, one of the king’s justiciaries (Mon. i. 854; Rot. Canc.; RCR). Henry Fitz-Hervey, his son, was, 1203, in charge of the royal forests beyond Trent (Rotulus Cancellarii). Adam Fitz-H., his son (Blomefield, Norf. xi. 231), had issue John Fitz-Hervey, who m. Joan, dau. of John Hammon, Lord of Thurley, Bedford, and d. 1292, and from him lineally descend the Marquises of Bristol and the Baronets Bathurst.

Harvey. —Well distributed over England south of a line drawn from Hull to Chester. North of that line its frequency abruptly ceases. It is best represented in Essex, Hants, and Kent, and then in Corwall, Devon, Staffordshire, Notts, Norfolk, and Suffolk. Its preference for the coast counties, especially those in the south - east of England from Kent to Norfolk, is to be remarked. This name in the reign of Edward I. took the form of Hervey and Hervi, and was found in London and Cambridgeshire. (Hundred Rolls.) Herve was an ancient Norman personal name. Harvey is also found in many parts of Scotland.