The surnames Chajes (Ashkenazic Hebrew), Chayes, Hayyot, Hayyut, and Hiyyut are written in Hebrew characters as Hebrew: חיות.[citation needed] The family name originated in the Jewish community of sixteenth-century Prague, one of many such matronymic names adopted by the community in the period.[1] It means "Chaya's [child/children]." The use of the Hebrew, rather than a Yiddish spelling, thus produced a double entendre seemingly intended to suggest "vitality".
Hebrew: חיוֹת means animals; Hebrew: חיוּת means vitality.
People with this surname
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- Abram Chayes (1922–2000), American scholar of international law
- Benno Chajes (1880–1938), German physician and politician
- Rabbi Isaac Hayyut (died 1726), Polish rabbi
- Jennifer Tour Chayes (born 1956), mathematical physicist and managing director of Microsoft Research New England
- Rabbi Menahem Manesh Hayyut (died 1636), Polish rabbi
- Oscar Chajes (1973–1928), Austrian-American chess player
- Sarah Chayes (born 1962), American journalist
- Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (1805–1855), Galician rabbi
- Rabbi Zwi Perez Chajes (1876–1927), Austrian rabbi
- J. H. Chajes (born 1965), Israeli-American professor of Jewish thought