Housley
A surname most likely from a local place-name, probably meaning someone from or near a place called Houseley/Ouseley in northern England.
The #8,361 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,966 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is usually treated as a locational surname. Older authorities connect Housley with a lost or hard-to-trace place-name such as Houseley, and one 19th-century source explicitly says it is the same as Ouseley. The likely sense is a place-name built from Old English elements, probably referring to a clearing or meadow associated with a house or dwelling, though the exact original site is uncertain.
History
19th-century surname writers place Housley among northern English local surnames, especially in Yorkshire, and later distribution notes show it appearing in parts of England such as Derbyshire. The surname also crossed to the United States, where it remains relatively uncommon. Because the place of origin is not securely identified, some older explanations are suggestive rather than definitive.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One historical writer noted that the supposed source place of Housley could not be confidently identified, which is a reminder that some surnames preserve vanished or badly recorded medieval place-names.
From the historical record
“man who has a house of his own. HOUSLEY. The same as Ouseley. HOUSTON. HOUSTOUN, The an- cient knightly family so called originally bore the name of Paduinan from a place in CO. Lanark. In the XII. cent. Hugli de P. acquired the lands of Kilpeter, and built a residence there, to which he gave the name of Hugh's…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom