What is the correct niqqud to put on the name of the מהר"ץ חיות? Wikipedia claims that his last name is spelled Chajes in English, and that Chayes or Hayot may also be seen. This seems to imply that the correct niqqud should be חַיּוֹת hayoth (a word which can refer to angels). On the other hand, when I encountered the name I had always blindly assumed that it was חִיּוּת ("vitality"), and the same spelling could also be חַיּוּת ("vitality"). Are any of these vocalizations correct? Alternatively, is his original last name a non-Hebrew word pronounced /χajəs/ (in IPA) that was identified with a Hebrew word with niqqud just a folk etymology, and therefore it might not have a "correct" vocalization?
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