Whitley
A locational surname meaning “from the white clearing” or “white meadow,” taken from several English places named Whitley.
The #1,313 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,550 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Whitley comes from English place-names built from Old English words for “white” and “clearing” or “meadow.” The first element is usually taken from hwīt, “white,” while the second is from leah, “woodland clearing,” though some early writers loosely glossed it as “white lea” or “white legh.” As a surname, it identifies someone who came from one of the many places called Whitley in England.
History
Lower notes several Whitley place-names in counties including Northumberland, Berkshire, Somerset, Shropshire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, which explains why the surname arose independently in more than one locality. The name is well represented in English records and later spread through migration within Britain and to overseas English-speaking populations. Because it is a place-name surname, unrelated Whitley families may share the same spelling but not the same ancestral line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
There are multiple English places called Whitley, so two people with the surname Whitley may descend from entirely different villages.
From the historical record
“White. Comp. Browning. WHITLEY. Townships, hamlets, &c., in cos. Northumlierland, Berks, Somerset, Salop, Chester, and York. WHITMILL. A corruption either of Kidte mill, or of mlieat mill. WHITMORE. The family were seated at Whitmore, or Whittimere, iu the ]5arish of Claverley, co. Salop, in the reign of Henry III.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom