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MAYES Family History

This interesting and unusual surname is of early medieval English origin, and is a patronymic of May, which is from a pet form of the male given name Matthew, which is of biblical origin, ultimately from the Hebrew male given name "Matityahu", meaning "gift of God", recorded in the Greek New Testament in the form "Matth(a)ias". This name was taken into Latin as both "Matthias" and "Matthaeus", the former being used for the apostle and the latter for the evangelist. However, the distinction was not consistently made, and in most languages the two forms have completely fallen together again.