The morley Surname
morley Name Meaning and History
- English: habitational name from any of the various places called Morley (for example in Cheshire, Derbyshire, County Durham, Norfolk, and West Yorkshire), or Moreleigh in Devon, all of which are named from Old English mor ‘marsh’, ‘fen’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.
- Possibly an altered spelling of French Morlet, a nickname from a diminutive of Old French mor ‘brown’, ‘dark’ (from Latin Maurus ‘Moor’).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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