Lindley
A locational surname from places in Yorkshire, especially the parish of Lindley near Huddersfield.
The #3,482 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,092 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Lindley is a habitational surname taken from one or more places named Lindley, especially in Yorkshire. The name is usually explained from Old English elements, with lind meaning “lime tree” or sometimes “shield,” plus leah meaning “woodland clearing” or “open ground.” In place-name use, the sense is generally “the clearing by the lime trees” or a similar landscape description.
History
Bardsley and Lower both treat Lindley as a local surname derived from Yorkshire places of that name, and Barber likewise lists it as a place-name surname. The name spread as people moved away from their home parishes and were identified by their place of origin. It remains most closely associated with northern England, especially Yorkshire.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley notes that Lind- appears in several English place-names, including Lindley, Lindhurst, Lindale, and Lindow.
From the historical record
“resident. LINDLEY. Several places in York- shire are so called. LINDO. Naturalized from Portugal. The same as Liud. LINDSAY. This distinguished family, who boasted of twenty Earls of Crawford, extending from the year 1398 to 1808, and whose deeds have been recorded by a noble member of the house, in his " Lives of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom