Hood has two documented Scottish origins: a nickname from Middle English hod, hood or hodde for someone who wore hoods or made and sold them, and a variant of Hudd, from a medieval personal name that was most likely a pet form of Hugh. The Dictionary of American Family Names labels both routes “English and Scottish,” and Scottish Hood families trace their stories through Lowland parishes such as those of Berwickshire and Ayrshire.
The hood-maker and the hood-wearer
In the medieval world the hood was an everyday garment, and it gave rise to a practical surname. The Dictionary of American Family Names explains Hood as a nickname from Middle English hod, hood, hodde, applied either to a man known for the hood he wore or to one who made and sold hoods for a living. In a burgh market, the hood-seller was as easy to name as the baker or the smith.
Hudde, a pet form of Hugh
The second Scottish origin has nothing to do with clothing. The dictionary also treats Hood as a variant of Hudd, from the Middle English personal name Hudde or Hutte. That name could represent Old English Hud(d)a or its Germanic counterpart Hud(d)o, but the dictionary considers it more likely to come from Anglo-Norman French Hud(de), a pet form of Hugh. On this reading, a Hood family descends from an ancestor affectionately known as Hud, just as other families took their names from pet forms of John or Robert.
The dictionary does not choose between the two Scottish origins, and different Hood families may well have arrived at the name by different paths.
Devon and Ulster Hoods: separate stories
Hood is also an English and an Irish surname, and those branches have their own origins. In England the dictionary adds a Middle English personal name Hod(e) and a place-name, Hood in Rattery, Devon, probably named for a hood-shaped hill. In Ireland, Hood is an anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUid, “descendant of Ud,” the name of an Ulster family who were bards to the O’Neills of Clandeboy. The dictionary distinguishes these origins from its English-and-Scottish explanations, and both matter to families whose ancestry may run through Devon or Ulster.
FamilySearch’s Family Tree reflects that wide spread, with over forty-eight thousand Hood records in the United States, over fifteen thousand in England and almost eight thousand in Scotland.
Robert and William Walter Hood of Berwickshire
Two Berwickshire Hoods built new lives in Australia. Robert Hood was born at Longformacus on 12 February 1821 and became a sheep grazier in Victoria from 1854 and a sheep breeder from 1872. He sat on his local council from 1874 to 1883, leading it in 1876, and he died at Warrnambool on 30 October 1891.
William Walter Hood, born at Elmford in Berwickshire on 25 March 1844, followed a similar pastoral path in Queensland, where he was a grazier from 1880 to 1895. He then turned to the frozen-meat export trade, which occupied him from 1895 until his death, and sat in the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1898–1899. He died in Brisbane on 18 August 1920.
Sir Alexander Jarvie Hood of Tarbolton
From Ayrshire came a Hood who served in medicine and the military. Alexander Jarvie Hood was born at Tarbolton on 21 October 1860 and practiced as a physician in New South Wales from 1884, moving to Sydney in 1889. He was also an officer in the colonial militia from 1890 to 1900 and, after federation, an army medical officer for the Commonwealth from 1901 to 1934. Later knighted, he died at Potts Point, Sydney, on 8 May 1934.
Hood and Hudd in Lowland parish records
For Scottish Hoods, the Old Parish Registers cover baptisms, marriages and burials before 1855, and the statutory registers from 1855 add parents’ names, occupations and places of residence. Berwickshire parishes such as Longformacus and Ayrshire parishes such as Tarbolton are documented Hood birthplaces, but the name can appear in many other districts. The surname’s varied origins make parish and civil records a useful starting point for the family story. Search Hudd alongside Hood in early entries. If a line leads into Ulster, Irish church and civil registers will help decide whether the family was Scottish in origin or belonged to the Gaelic Ó hUid name.
Celebrate the Hood name with our woven blanket, a practical accent mug or a ceramic ornament for the tree. Explore our Hood Scottish family gifts.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Hood surname mean in Scotland?
Either a nickname for a hood-wearer or hood-maker, or a form of Hud, a pet form of Hugh.
Is the Irish Hood name the same as the Scottish one?
The Gaelic Irish name Ó hUid has a separate origin from the English-and-Scottish forms of Hood.
Where did Scottish Hood families live?
Well-documented bearers came from Berwickshire parishes like Longformacus and from Tarbolton in Ayrshire.
Is there a Hood clan?
The dictionary records several origins for Hood. A particular family’s clan connections are traced through its own history.