Recorded as both Holhouse and Holehouse, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname. There are several places called Holehouse in the counties of Dumfriess in Scotland and Yorkshire in England, and both may have provided examples of the surname, although nothing has been proven for Scotland. The name does mean the "house in the hollow" from the pre 7th century Olde English "hol" meaning a hollow or valley, and "hus", a house or dwelling, and this particularly applies to the (now) village of Holehouse near Sheffield in Yorkshire, which is in the centre of a valley. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. The easiest way to identify a stranger in ancient times being to call him, or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came. In this case the surname is an early recording in the surviving church registers of Greater London as well as in its home county of Yorkshire. These recordings include Mary Holhouse who married Thomas Cooper at St Peters Church, Leeds, on August 16th 1710, and Charles Holehouse, who was christened at St Vedast Church, in the city of London, on November 18th 1750.

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