Origins and meaning of -halgh name ending?

[An_Gadai]

I’ve noticed a few surnames recently with -halgh, ie hesmondhalgh, Greenhalgh. What does it mean and what language/where does it originate from?

[jjimm]

It seems to be northern English, and from the same origin as “haugh” according to this slightly unsatisfying entry in Google Books.

[jjimm]

Thisis better:

Halgh for hough or haugh, a hill, a mound, the same as How;

Ibid.

[Chez_Guevara]

A possible origin of Greenhalgh can be found here:

Greenhalgh the Origins & meaning

One theory is that the name is of Nordic (Viking) origin, one possible meaning which I keep hearing over the years is Land by a body of water. The current spelling of Greenhalgh I believe is an English approximation of the local pronunciation. The spelling has probably changed several times since the Norman conquest of England which was complete by 1071AD.

The Doomsday Book which was written 14 years after the Norman conquest states that the original spelling of Greenhalgh was Greneholf, so lets have a look at the meaning of this spelling by breaking this in to its two parts, firstly Grene.

Meaning found at www.dictionary.com Using their Dictionary search Grene

Middle English grene, from Old English grne; sense 7 translation of German Grünen, Greens, from grün, green.]

Now lets look at the second part holf

Meaning found at www.dictionary.com Using their thesaurus search Island

N. island, isle, islet, eyot[obs], ait[obs], holf[obs], reef, atoll, breaker; archipelago; islander.

So loosely translated from old English Greenhalgh means Green Island, rather nice I think. I feel to take the HALGH in modern English/Dutch or German is impossible, as I said earlier this spelling is an approximation of the pronunciation & is not truly a word.