Etymology From Middle English highten, variant of hoten (“to name, to be named”), from Old English hātan. The stem of the word was remodelled by analogy with the simple past form hight, from Old English hēht. Cognate with Scots hecht, Dutch heten, German heißen, etc.
He that made loue vnto the eldeſt Dame, Was hight Sir Huddibras, an hardy man[…]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene, page 209:
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Childe Harold was he hight.1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza III:
“Lord,” said Sir Launcelot, “I am hight Launcelot, and am surnamed ‘He of the Lake.’”1905, Howard Pyle, “The Story of Launcelot”, in The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 66:
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Archaic, With a name as complement To be called or named.
I hight Sir Galahad.
Bright was her hue, and Geraldine she hight.c. 1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The faithful Lover declareth his Pains and his uncertain Joys, and with only Hope recomforteth somewhat his woful Heart:
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In all the worlde one onely face of nature did abide, which Chaos hight1567, Ovid, The.xv.Bookes of P. Ouidius Naſo, entytuled Metamorphoſis, tranſlated oute of Latin into Engliſh meeter, by Arthur Golding, Gentleman:
There did I ſee that low ſpirited Swaine […] which as I remember, hight Coſtard […]c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
Etymology From Middle English highten, variant of hoten (“to name, to be named”), from Old English hātan. The stem of the word was remodelled by analogy with the simple past form hight, from Old English hēht. Cognate with Scots hecht, Dutch heten, German heißen, etc.
[…]there dwelt in a city of the cities of China a man which was a tailor, withal a pauper, and he had one son, Alaeddin hight.1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 514”, in Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC: