Hap is an English nickname tied to happiness, luck, or chance.
Hap is one of the English language's most quietly poignant names, a survival from the Old Norse *happ* and Middle English *hap*, meaning luck, fortune, or chance. It is the hidden ancestor of a remarkable cluster of common English words: *happy*, *hapless*, *haphazard*, *perhaps*, and *happen* all owe their existence to this ancient root. In an era when most English speakers have forgotten the word, to name a child Hap is to resurrect an entire semantic world—one in which good fortune was not guaranteed but gratefully noticed.
In early modern English literature, "hap" was a live word. Shakespeare used it freely, and the phrase "good hap" appears throughout Elizabethan prose and poetry as a heartfelt wish for a companion's fortune. As a given name, Hap remained modest but steady in American usage through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often as a nickname for Henry, Harold, or Harvey.
General Henry "Hap" Arnold, commander of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, is among the name's most prominent bearers—his nickname became so associated with his sunny, optimistic temperament that it followed him into history books. Hap has the rare quality of a name that sounds like what it means: short, bright, uncomplicated, and warm. It fell from common use in the latter half of the twentieth century, which now makes it available for rediscovery.
In an age of elaborate, multi-syllabic names, Hap's radical simplicity is itself a kind of distinction. It carries within it an entire philosophy—that luck is real, that cheerfulness matters, and that a name can be a daily reminder of both.