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A patronymic name from the Anglo-Norman Hugo which developed in the vernacular as Hue and Hugh.  St. Hugh of Lincoln established the first Carthusian monastery in England in the 12th century. 

Select Hughes Resources on The Internet

• Hughes Family History Website.  Hiughes genealogy.
• George Hughes and Descendants.  Hiughes from England to America.
• Thomas Hughes Genealogy.  Hughes of Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Wales.  The name became prevalent in Wales, being first found there in Carmarthenshire.  This may seem surprising as Hugh was Anglo-Norman in origin rather than Welsh.  But Hugh (and subsequently Hughes) became a Welsh name simply because it bore a resemblance to the common Welsh name of Hywel or Howell. Hughes gradually replaced Hywel in the 15th and 16th centuries. 

The Hughes name today in Wales is mainly to be found in north Wales, in present day Clwyd and Gwynedd. Among early Hughes in this area were:

• Daffyd Llwyd ap Hugh, who set up his family home at Plas Coch in Anglesey in the 16th century.  A descendant William Bulkeley Hughes was instrumental in developing Llandudno as a holiday resort in the 19th century.
  

• The Rev. William Hughes who became Bishop of St. Asaph in Flintshire in 1573.  A descendant the Rev. Edward Hughes bought the Kinmel estates in Flintshire in the 1780's.  He had owned land on Parys mountain in Anglesey where copper was discovered and had grown rich on its proceeds.
  

England.  Recently there have been more Hughes recorded across the border, in Cheshire, Lancashire and Staffordshire.  One notable Hughes family was involved in the papermaking industry from the 1760's in the Manchester and Bolton area.  Michael Hughes was a successful industrialist in St. Helens who became a major landowner in Sutton.  Some of these Hughes had originally come from Wales.  Quentin Hughes who did much to preserve Liverpool's Victorian architectural heritage had Welsh parents. 

Ireland.  The Hughes name was also imported into Ireland.  It crops up mainly in Armagh, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.  Hughes can also be Irish, from the Gaelic O'Haodha, meaning "fire."

Charles Hughes, a Republican politician from New York, was the Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941.
Langston Hughes was an African American poet who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance.

Howard Hughes was an American aviator, industrialist, and film maker.  He was one of the wealthiest men of the world in the 1930's but ended his life as a recluse.
Ted Hughes was the English Poet Laureate from 1984 to 1998.