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Hayes is a matronymic surname of Jewish origin, derived from the Yiddish feminine given name Chaya. According to Jewish onomastic tradition, matronymic surnames—those based on the mother's name—are less common than patronymic ones but were used especially when the mother was particularly well-known or as a way to distinguish families. The name Chaya itself means "living" in Hebrew, and is considered a feminine form of Chaim, which means "life." This suffixing pattern is typical of Eastern European Jewish surnames, where the suffix may indicate "son of" or simply denote kinship.

The surname Hayes must be distinguished from the more common Irish surname Hayes, which has a completely different origin: the Irish surname is an anglicization of Ó hAodha, meaning "descendant of Aodh" (fire). The Jewish Hayes, by contrast, is mostly found among Ashkenazi Jewish populations and is recorded in documents such as immigration records and passenger lists. While exact statistical data on its modern-day distribution is limited, it likely remains most prevalent in Jewish communities, particularly in Israel, the United States, and other regions with substantial Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora.

Variants of this surname include Chaikin, which shares the same root in Chaya. In some records, the name may appear as Hayas, Chayes, or other phonetic spellings depending on transliteration from Yiddish or Hebrew.