Ley
A surname most often from a meadow or from places named with the Old English word for meadow.
The #6,704 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,296 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ley comes from Old English leah, a word meaning a meadow, clearing, or open piece of ground. As a surname, it was often used for someone who lived by such a place, or who came from a place called Ley, Lee, Leigh, or similar. In some cases it may also be a shortened or variant form of a longer place-based surname.
History
English surname writers noted that Ley, Lea, Lee, Legh, and Leigh are all spelling variants built on the same old word. The form also appears in surnames derived from specific places, and Lower specifically connects one Ley family with Leicester or Leicester-shire. Because short surnames like this can arise independently in several places, not every modern Ley family will share one single origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers often treated Ley and its many variants as one of the clearest examples of an old English landscape surname.
From the historical record
“Cumberland, where the family still exist, LEY. See under lue. LEYCESTER. The founder of the family was Sir Nicholas Leycester, who acquired the manor of Nether Taljley in Cheshire by marriage, and died in 1295. There his descendants of the elder line flourished till 1742. Shirley's Noble aud Gentle Men. The name…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom