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English (southwestern): occupational name for a hunter from Middle English hunte ‘hunter huntsman’ (Old English hunta). The term was used not only of the hunting on horseback of game such as stags and wild boars which in the Middle Ages was a pursuit restricted to the ranks of the nobility but also to much humbler forms of pursuit such as bird catching and poaching for food. The word seems also to have been used as an Old English personal name and to have survived into the Middle Ages as an occasional personal name. Compare Huntington and Huntley . Irish: adopted for various Irish surnames containing or thought to contain the Gaelic element fiadhach ‘hunt’; for example Ó Fiaich (see Fee ) and Ó Fiachna (see Fenton ). Possibly an Americanized form of German Hundt .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022