Bentley
A habitational surname meaning someone from a place called Bentley, originally referring to a grassy clearing or pasture covered with bent grass.
The #862 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,682 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bentley is a habitational surname taken from one of several English places called Bentley. The name is usually explained as Old English bent, meaning bent grass, plus leah, meaning a clearing, meadow, or pasture. In other words, it referred to a grassy clearing or rough pasture land.
History
The surname arose independently in several parts of England because there were many settlements named Bentley, including in Suffolk, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Staffordshire, Sussex, and Yorkshire. Nineteenth-century surname writers regularly treated it as a straightforward local name. It remains most common in England and the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname books sometimes gloss Bentley quite literally as “bent-lea,” a pasture where bent grass grew.
From the historical record
“this country from Holland in 1688. BENTLEY. Parishes and places in cos. Hants, Stafford, Suffolk, Warwick, York, Essex, Derby, Sussex, &c. BENTON. A parish in Northumb. BENIVELL. A township in Northum- berland. The Benwells were descended from the Shaftos of that county. BENYON. Ab Enion, "the son of Enion,'' a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom