Utley
A locational surname from a Yorkshire place-name, probably meaning “Utta’s clearing” or “Utta’s meadow.”
The #4,788 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,807 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Utley is generally treated as a habitational surname from Utley in Yorkshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Utelai. The name is usually explained from Old English personal name Utta plus leah, meaning a clearing, meadow, or woodland clearing, so the literal sense is “Utta’s clearing.” Some older writers connect the first element with a word meaning “out” or “outer,” but the personal-name explanation is the usual one and fits the place-name pattern better.
History
The surname arose as a local name for people who came from Utley and later spread beyond Yorkshire as families moved. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname scholars also occasionally linked it with Otley, but Harrison specifically argued against confusing the two. Modern bearer counts show it as a relatively uncommon English surname in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One early source notes that the place-name was already in Domesday Book, giving the surname a documentary history of nearly a thousand years.
From the historical record
“water, stream] UTLEY (Eng.) Bel. to Utley (Yorks), the Domesday Utelai, A.-Sax. *Ut{t)an-ledh = Ut(t)a's Lea [the pers. name Ut{t)a {Utta was the name of a priest — abbot of Gateshead — mentioned more than once in Beda's 'Hist. Eccl.') is prob. f. O.E. ylan (base iit, out), to expel, banish] I cannot trace that…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)