Halkett (/hɔːkɛt/) is a Scottish surname of Doric English (Anglo-Norman) origin. The Halkett surname originated in the Hawks Wood,

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...

, Scotland; the family seat was at Pitfirrane Castle near

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

. The name is derived from 'hawk' /hɔːlk/ and 'head' /hi:d/ (Doric pronunciations). Being attentive to the Scots phoneme-grapheme link, the '-aw' in 'hawk' is spelt '-al' (pron. /ɔːl/), hence its morphological change from 'Haw-' to 'Hal-'. Over time, the surname evolved through auditory elision to 'head' (pron. /hi:d/) being written as '-et'/'-ett'/'-ette' (pron. /ɛt/). 'Halkett' is one such variant. By extension, surname variants ending in -head/-hede/-haide/-heid remain closer to the original 'Hawks Head' spelling than 'Halkett'. Variants of Halkett include Halket, Halkette, Halkhead, Halkhede, Halkhaide, Halkheid and Halkheide, Hackett, Hacket, and Haket. Notable people with the surname include: * Alex Halkett (1881–1917), Scottish footballer * Anne Halkett (1623–1699), English religious writer and autobiographer * Colin Halkett (1774–1856), British army officer *Harry Halket (1889-1935) progenitor of the Potteries market trading dynasty *

Hugh Halkett Hugh Halkett, Royal Guelphic Order, GCH, Order of the Bath, CB, (30 August 1783 – 10 December 1863) was a British army officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During his military career, he served in both the Brit ...

(1783–1863), British soldier * John Halkett (disambiguation) * Sir Peter Halkett, 6th Baronet (1765–1839), senior Royal Navy officer *Peter Halkett (1820–1885), designer of the Halkett boat

See also