The English language surname Hawkins is said by FaNUK (Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland)[1] to have three possible origins.
It is one of many personal names with the diminutive Middle English suffix -kin (originally from Low German or Dutch) added to a single-syllable hypocoristic form, such as Robert > Hob > Hopkin, Walter > Wat > Watkin, or William > Will > Wilkin.
The Middle English personal name Haw is a rhyming fond form of Raw, that is, Ralph.
This was written as Hauekinge in 1204,[3] based on Old English heafoc (hawk), or more likely this same word used as a personal name.
In Ireland, Hawkins may be the result of Anglicising a native surname: it was used as a substitute for Ó hEacháin ‘descendant of Eachán' (= little Eachaidh, i.e. a pet form of the personal name Eachaidh meaning ‘horseman’), as it had a vague similarity in sound to the Irish name.