Tingley
A surname most likely meaning “the meadow or clearing by Tingle” — probably a place-name surname from an English locality.
The #9,741 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,800 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally taken to be locational, built from an English place-name. The common explanation in older surname books is that it contains the element -ley, meaning a clearing, meadow, or pasture, with the first element likely coming from a personal name or local feature. In other words, Tingley would originally have meant something like “Tingle’s clearing.”
History
Tingley is an English surname associated with places in Yorkshire, especially the village of Tingley near Leeds. Like many locational surnames, it would have been adopted by people who moved away from that place and were identified by their origin. The spelling has been fairly stable, though related forms such as Tingle may also occur in records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same surname books that mention Tingley often group it with other English place-name surnames ending in -ley, a very common medieval naming pattern.
From the historical record
“Woolley, Hawkesley, Horsley, Cowley, AVomersley, Carley, llarley. Barley, Oxley, Colley, Tingley, Fawslcy, Stanley, Shirley, Berkeley, Headley, Ashley, Bromley, Chol- moudeley, Copley, Stapley, Wellesley, Pel- ley, Shelley, Burleigh. LEECH. A Sax. lace, a physician.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom