Beasley
An English surname usually taken as a place-based name, most likely from one of several minor localities rather than a single famous place.
The #732 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,474 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Beasley is generally treated as a locational surname, with the name pointing to a place called something like Beesley or Beasley. The older surname dictionaries connect it especially with English place-names in Norfolk and Nottinghamshire, and also suggest related forms such as Beazley and Besley. The first element is often explained as either a personal name or a word for bees, while the second element is the Old English leah, meaning a clearing, meadow, or woodland glade.
History
The surname appears in several spellings, including Beesley, Besley, and Beazley, which reflects the loose medieval and early modern spelling of English local surnames. The name was already established in England by the time these dictionaries were compiled, but the excerpts do not point to one single origin place with certainty. In later centuries it spread widely in Britain and then overseas, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname can look like it ought to mean “bee meadow,” and that is one plausible reading, but the old sources also leave room for other local-name explanations.
From the historical record
“Oxf., Yorks Bazeley. See Beasley Beach. N.-Fr. De la Beche ; a p.n. ; Goisfrid de Bech, t. in chief, Hertfd, 1086. See Beck Beacham. From Beauchamp ; a loc. n. in the Cotentin, France”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)