Corley
A surname with multiple possible origins, including an Irish Gaelic line and an English place-name line.
The #2,012 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,219 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Corley is a surname with more than one plausible origin. In English records, it has been linked to the parish name Corley in Warwickshire, so it may be locational for someone who came from that place. Irish sources also connect Corley with Gaelic family names and related spellings such as MacCorley, suggesting an Anglicized Irish surname in at least some cases; the exact Irish root is not settled from these excerpts alone.
History
The name appears in both English and Irish surname traditions, which helps explain why it is found in more than one region and with several spellings. Later scholarship on Irish families records Corley alongside forms such as MacCorley and Kerley, while older English onomastic work also treated Corley as a place-based surname. Because these lines of development may have been separate, modern bearers do not all share the same ancestry.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname turns up in both an English place-name context and an Irish family-name context, so the same spelling can have different family origins.
From the historical record
“CORKER. Perhaps a maker of corks, CORLEY. A parish in co. "Warwick. CORMACK. A personal name. Gael. M'Cormac. CORNS. CORNU. R.G. 16. See under Cowhoru. CORNELIUS. The personal name. CORNELL. A local pronunciation of Cornwall ?”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom