The harkness Surname
harkness Name Meaning and History
Scottish: apparently a habitational name from an unidentified place
(perhaps in the area of Annandale, with which the surname is connected
in early records), probably so called from the Old English personal
name Hereca (a derivative of the various compound names with
the first element here ‘army’) + Old English næss
‘headland’, ‘cape’. The surname is also established in northern
Ireland, where it was taken in the 17th century by settlers from
Dumfriesshire.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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