Etymology

Halifax

Hal·i·fax
H4A1L1I1F4A1X8

Today it means: An industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, 20km south-west of Leeds (OS grid ref SE0925). Full definition →

Old English halh-ġefeaxe
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old English · derived fromhāliġfeax
  2. Old English · derived fromhalh-ġefeaxe
  3. English todayHalifax

From Old English halh-ġefeaxe (literally “grassy corner”), compounded from halh + ġefeaxe. Folk etymology suggests Old English hāliġfeax (literally “holy hair”), as compounded from hāliġ + feax, from a local legend that the town is said to have received the name from the fact that the hair of a murdered virgin was hung up on a tree in the neighborhood, which became a resort of pilgrims. Compare also Fairfax. The capital city of Nova Scotia is named after statesman George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (1716–1771). The civil parish is also named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax. Coined by British-Dutch surveyor Samuel Holland.

First known use, by meaning

  • From 1765 A civil parish of Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
  • From 1749 A regional municipality, the capital city of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.