Moxley
An English surname probably based on a place-name meaning “Muga’s clearing” or a similar old topographic form.
The #7,525 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 69,836 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname was treated by 19th-century writers as a local or place-based name, though the exact place behind it is uncertain. One proposal connects it with an old form like Mugasley, explained as containing the Saxon element muga, glossed as “much,” “great,” or “large,” plus leah, meaning a clearing, field, or meadow. In that reading, the name would mean something like “the large clearing” or “Muga’s clearing.”
History
Moxley is an English surname and is relatively uncommon today. The name appears to have survived as a regional family name and later spread more widely through migration, especially to the United States. Because the historical explanation is uncertain, modern bearers may descend from more than one local origin or from spelling variation over time.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old element leah in English place-names often survives in surnames ending in -ley, which originally referred to a clearing rather than a modern “ley” field.
From the historical record
“MOXON. The son of Moggie or Margaret. MOXLEY. Local. Probably Mugasley, from the Saxon muga, much, great, large, and ley, a field. MULLIGAN. (Gaelic.) Local MuUechean, the top or sum- mit, a height. MULLINS. (Fr.) A miller. "De Moulin," from the mill MUMFORD. The same as Montfort (which see). MUNDY. Local. Derived…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names