KELLY

(origin: Gaelic and Welsh.) A grove, generally of hazel. Kill or Cille, in the Gaelic and Celtic, denotes a church.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

KELLY. KELLEY. The Kelleys were in old times resident in the parish of that name in Devonshire, and the Irish Kellys, now very numerous, bear the same arms. According to the genenlogy in B.L.G., the Kellys of Kelly " may look back beyond the Conquest and derive themselves from the ancient Britons !" Mr. Shirley says: " Kelly is a manor in the hundred of Lifton, about six miles from Tavistock. The manor and advowson have been in the family at least from the thue of Henry II, and here they have uninterruptedly resided since that very early period." Noble and Gentle Men, p. 59. Tlie similar name Kellie is a diminutive of Charles. See Kell.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.