CASE. This name is found in the H.R. and may be the Anglo-Norman cas, chance, hazard — probably with reference to the char.acter, or some incident in the life, of the first person who bore it. So Hazai'd has become a family name. A family in Devonshire thus designated account for it by a tradition that, about two hundred years since, a foundling was laid at the door of a certain gentleman, to whom popular scandal attributed its paternity ; the gCTitleman denied the allegation, but from motives of liumanity had the infant taken care of, and, from the circumstance of its having been enclosed in a packing-case, imposed upon the poor foundling this curious appellation. The Fr. case, from Latin casa, a mean house, cottage, or hut, is, however, a more likely etymon.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.