Dilley
A surname most likely developed as a diminutive or variant of the old personal name Till/Dill, rather than from a place-name or occupation.
The #6,036 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 54,242 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Dilley is generally treated as a variant of Dilke/Dill, and in older surname studies it is linked with the medieval personal-name group Till, Tilly, and related forms. These names were often explained as short forms or diminutives of older Germanic names, though the exact root is uncertain and the 19th-century literature gives competing etymologies. In practical terms, Dilley is best understood as a descendant of a given name rather than a word meaning an occupation or a place.
History
Historical surname writers found Dilley alongside forms such as Dilke, Dillow, Tilley, and Till, especially in English records. Some older scholars tried to connect this family of names to ancient Germanic stems, while others treated them simply as pet forms of personal names. The surname survives in England and later appears in the United States, where it is now relatively uncommon.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname researchers regularly grouped Dilley with a whole cluster of look-alike names—Dill, Till, Tilley, and Dillow—because they probably shared a common nickname-style origin.
From the historical record
“handicraft. DILLEY. SeeDilke. DILLIMORE. SeeDilke. DILLMAN. See DiUer. DILLON. The common ancestor of the noble Dillons of Ii'eland was Henry Dillon, who settled in that country in the year 1185. King John, while Earl of Mortain, gave him immense tracts of laud about Drumrany, wliich were afterwards collec-”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom