The bailey Surname
bailey Name Meaning and History
- status name for a steward or official, Middle English bail(l)i (Old French baillis, from Late Latin baiulivus, an adjectival derivative of baiulus ‘attendant’, ‘carrier’ ‘porter’).
- topographic name for someone who lived by the outer wall of a castle, Middle English bail(l)y, baile ‘outer courtyard of a castle’, from Old French bail(le) ‘enclosure’, a derivative of bailer ‘to enclose’, a word of unknown origin. This term became a place name in its own right, denoting a district beside a fortification or wall, as in the case of the Old Bailey in London, which formed part of the early medieval outer wall of the city.
- habitational name from Bailey in Lancashire, named with Old English beg ‘berry’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.
- Anglicized form of French Bailly.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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