Dudley
A habitational surname from the English town of Dudley in Worcestershire.
The #972 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,629 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dudley is a surname taken from the place-name Dudley in Worcestershire. The name is usually explained from Old English elements meaning roughly “Dudda’s clearing” or, in older interpretations, a settlement associated with a dead or barren place; nineteenth-century writers were not fully agreed on the details. As a surname, it simply marked someone who came from that town.
History
The name appears early in medieval records as people were identified by their place of origin. It later became associated with the noble Sutton family, who held the title Baron Dudley, though some older authors doubted whether the title came from an actual family called Dudley. The surname spread more widely in England and later to North America and other English-speaking regions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is also connected with the historic town and castle of Dudley, a major landmark in the English Midlands.
From the historical record
“DUDEXEY. See Doudney. DUDLEY. A town and castle in co. Worcester. In Norman times it was the fief of the De Someries, whose descendants wei'e barons by tenure, though, as Sir H. Nicolas observes, it is questionable whether their title Avas that of " Dudley." So far as I see, no noble family called Dudley Avas ever…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom