Hartley
A common English surname taken from places called Hartley, meaning “hart’s clearing” or “deer wood.”
The #1,124 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,889 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hartley is a habitational surname from one of several English places named Hartley. The name is usually explained from Old English heorot or hart, “hart” or “stag,” plus leah, “woodland clearing,” so the literal sense is “deer clearing” or “stag wood.” Because there are multiple Hartleys in England, the surname could arise independently in more than one place.
History
The name is recorded as a place-based surname in medieval and post-medieval England and later spread widely as families moved from their home villages. 19th-century surname writers specifically linked it to places in Kent, Northamptonshire, Westmorland, Hampshire, Berkshire, and elsewhere. The spelling has also produced variants such as Heartly.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century surname dictionary noted Hartley as a name from several different English localities, which means unrelated Hartley families could have the same surname but different geographic origins.
From the historical record
“HARTLAND. A town in Devonshire. HARTLEY. Places in cos. Kent, Nor- thumb., Westmoreland, Hants, Berks, &c. HARTOX. Townships in cos. Chester and York. HARTOPP. Local: from hart, the animal, and HOPE, which see. The first of the famil)' on record is Ralph Hartopp who was living in 1377. Burke's Ext. Barts. H…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom