I haven't read all the responses, so please forgive if I repeat someone else.

First thing is to find out the earliest recorded version of the name
Consider the sound of the elements of the name rather than the spelling

Norse for house is "hus" and sounds like huss not howsse, so "haugr" meaning a mound and specifically a grave mound seems pretty certain

(some lovely combination words exist:"hauga-brot" - breaking open of a grave mound, "hauga-eldr" - fire from graves and "haug-bui" ghost or undead man - a Viking zombie!)

"Maes" is the mystery and is why I ask of the earliest known date of the name. If it is early medieval then English words will have crept in - Scots is but an Anglo-Norse dialect - heretical but true)

It could be a personal name and if so probably a hero, giant or mythical person. On a more mundane level, "maes" can mean a boundary and is derived from "maere" which evolved in England into "mark" and "marches". Is there an actual or former boundary close by? Too tenuous to suggest that the mound was a boundary between life and death.

Just a thought or two, meaning I don't rightly know!