The meaning of the name Hatteras is unknown.

The Hatteras belonged to the Algonquian linguistic family.

This small group primarily lived among the sandbanks around Cape Hatteras, east of Pamlico Sound and frequenting Roanoke Island.

Village: Sandbanks, on Hatteras Island.

Lawson thought the Hatteras showed traces of white blood and therefore they may have been the Croatan Indians with whom Raleigh's colonists are supposed to have taken refuge. They disappeared soon after as a distinct tribe and united with the mainland Algonquians.

In 1761, the Rev. Alexander Stewart baptized seven Indians and mixed-blood children of the "Attamuskeet, Hatteras, and Roanoke" tribes, and two years later he baptized twenty-one more.

The Hatteras population has been estimated with the Machapunga and other tribes at 1,200 in 1600; they had 16 warriors in 1701, or a total population of about 80.

The possible connection of the Hatteras with the Croatan has been mentioned and their name has become perpetuated in the dangerous cape at the angle of the outer sand islands of North Carolina.