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
Learn the meaning and history of your first name
Search for morley records
More resources for your morley family history
Morley message board
Threads: 344 - Messages: 805
Start your FREE family tree. Who will you discover?
A family tree is the easiest way to start discovering your family history. To begin, just enter whatever you know and we'll use that to try and find more information for you.
Begin your family tree with your name:
The morley name in History
A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the morley family name as far back in history as possible.
Member Connections
- Anonymously contact one of the Ancestry members researching the morley last name.
- Search for Ancestry members researching one of your specific ancestors.
- Create or update your own Ancestry member profile so that other members can anonymously contact you.
More Tools and Resources
- Search Ancestry.com for all of your morley ancestors.
- Create and publish your own family history book using Ancestry Press.
- Learn more about your family history using DNA Ancestry.
- Learn more about family history in the Ancestry Learning Center.
- Visit the Ancestry.com homepage.