Family name origins & meanings
- Muslim : from a personal name based on Arabic hayy‘alive’. Al-Hayy, ‘the Living’, is one of the attributes of Allah.
- Chinese : from the name of Hai Qun, a senior minister of the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). The character for this name also means ‘ocean’.
- Vietnamese : unexplained.
- Jewish (Israeli) : ornamental name from Hebrew chai ‘alive’, ‘vivid’.