The riley Surname
riley Name Meaning and History
- Irish: variant spelling of Reilly.
- English: habitational name from Ryley in Lancashire, so named from Old English ryge ‘rye’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. There is a Riley with the same meaning in Devon, but it does not seem to have contributed to the surname, which is more common in northern England.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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