Culley
A surname with several possible roots, including an English place-name origin and possible Irish and French connections.
The #9,241 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 87,662 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Culley is not straightforward: 19th-century writers linked it to several different sources. One line of explanation derives it from the place-name Couillet in Flanders, with medieval spellings such as Cuilly or de Cuilly. Other writers also suggested an Irish origin from O'Coileain / M'Cully, relating to a personal name meaning roughly 'young warrior,' while some treated Cully as a related continental surname form.
History
Historical references show the name in England by at least the 16th and early 17th centuries, for example in Norwich records. The surname also appears in variant spellings such as Cully and, in some traditions, as a form connected with Cullyer or other continental names. Because the old sources disagree, the name may have independent origins in more than one family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname dictionaries sometimes gave Culley not one origin but three, showing how tricky medieval surname history can be.
From the historical record
“Collier. Thomas Culley, sheriff of Norwich, 1559 •• PP. iii. 35^ Jfoshua Culley, or Cully, mayor of Nor- wich, 1606 : ibid. p. 370.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)