The Irish Ó hEidhin, which means 'descendant of Eidhin'. The dictionary adds that Eidhin itself is "a personal name of uncertain origin. It may be a derivative of eidhean 'ivy', or it may represent an altered form of the place-name Aidhne" and that "the principal family of this name is descended from Guaire of Aidhne, King of Connacht. From the 7th century for over a thousand years they were chiefs of a territory in east County Galway. There appears to have been another branch of the family located in east County Limerick'".[1]
The Middle English name Hine (with the addition of the genitive-s case ending, implying that the name-bearer was the child of a father called Hine, or addition of -s on the analogy of such names). This occupational name derives from Old Englishhīne ('household servant, farm labourer'), but in the Middle English period could also mean 'farm manager' and also be used of high-status people serving in a lordly household.[2]
Around 2011, there were 4206 bearers of the surname Hines in Great Britain and 61 in Ireland. In 1881, there were 2471 bearers of the name in Great Britain, spread throughout England but especially in Lancashire. In the mid-nineteenth century, Irish examples of the name were concentrated in Offaly.[3]
^The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), II, p. 1369 [s.v. Hynes]; ISBN978-0-19-967776-4.
^The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), II, pp. 1290, 1369 [s.vv. Hine, Hines, Hynes]; ISBN978-0-19-967776-4.
^The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), II, p. 1290 [s.v. Hines]; ISBN978-0-19-967776-4.
