Chajes

The surnames Chajes (Ashkenazic Hebrew), Chayes, Hayyot, Hayyut, and Hiyyut are written in Hebrew characters as חיות. 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. 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".

חיוֹת means animals; חיוּת means vitality.

People with this surname

 * 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