Hatley
A habitational surname from places called Hatley in Cambridgeshire.
The #5,379 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,734 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is best understood as a place-name surname, taken from Hatley in Cambridgeshire. The place-name is old English in form, though the exact early elements are not firmly established in the excerpts; 19th-century writers treated it as a local surname rather than an occupation or nickname. In practice, Hatley means “someone from Hatley.”
History
The name appears in English records and was noted by older surname writers as a Cambridgeshire local name. It spread beyond its original county, and modern bearers are found in England and later in North America and elsewhere. Because the historical sources here give only brief treatment, there is little to add beyond its habitational origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly list Hatley under English place-based surnames, which is a strong clue that the family name began as a geographic label rather than a descriptive nickname.
From the historical record
“HATHORNE. See Hawthorne. HATLEY. HxVTELY. Parishes In Cambridgeshire. HvVTRED. Mr. Ferguson derives this name from the 0. Germ, one, Hadarat. HATT. See Preliminary Dissertation. HATTEMORE. The medieval Attc- More, with H prefixed. HATTEN. A mis-spelling of Hatton.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom