POLLEY
Polley is an English surname that traces its roots to the medieval given name Paul, derived from the Latin Paulus meaning small or humble. The surname is patronymic, originally employed to identify the descendants of a male named Paul. Over the centuries the name has given rise to a number of variations, including Polley, Polly, Pauley and the occasional spelling Pollee or Poly.
Church records from the mid-16th century provide the earliest written evidence of the family name. For example, in 1559 a christening entry records Symon Polley, an infant, at St. Botolph without Aldgate in London. In 1555 the sole surviving record of the surname listed is that of James Polye in the Marriage Register of St. Andrew's in Enfield, London, during the reign of Queen Mary.
During the late 16th and early 17th centuries some bearers of the name were of French Huguenot extraction. Their ancestors arrived in England as refugees fleeing religious persecution. The Threadneedle Street French Huguenot Church in London recorded the christening of Elisabeth, daughter of Jacob Pollee on 13 August 1671. These lines are recorded in later documents such as the 1845 marriage of James Polley to Martha Shadwell Pertey at the British Embassy Chapel in Paris, Seine, France.
An alternative origin for the name lies in the Old French word poli, meaning "agreeable" or "polite" and literally “polished”. The surname was then used to denote a courteous or amiable person. It is well recorded in English Church Registers from the mid-16th century and the spelling variations Poley, Pollo, Pollie and Poly have also been documented.
The Polley family possesses a heraldic crest: a gold shield with a black lion rampant and a silver martlet upon the shoulder. The coat of arms was formally granted to the Poley family and illustrates the family's historic prominence.
Another source of the surname is an Old English personal name Poli, which was likely a nickname for someone who lived near a pool or pond. Another possible derivation is from a place name based on the word pole, referring to a fenced area or boundary. The earliest bearers of the name appear in the late 13th century in the counties of Sussex and Kent.
In contemporary times the surname occurs most commonly in the United Kingdom, especially in the North West of England. It has grown in popularity in Central Scotland, around the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the United States, where it is frequently found in the Midwest—particularly Ohio, Michigan and Indiana—as well as in Florida and Texas.
In Australia the name is common in major metropolitan areas such as Melbourne and Sydney, having arrived there with Irish migrants about one and a half centuries ago, who in turn had taken the name from earlier English-speaking ancestors. Similarly, in Canada the surname is widespread, most prominently in Nova Scotia where it first arrived in the early 19th century, and also in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Manitoba.
Although the Polley surname is not highly common in most European countries, similar short spellings such as Polly can still be found in Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany. In Wales the family name adopts spellings like Porley, Porey, Power and Powrie and in Ireland it is most commonly encountered in County Fermanagh and County Tyrone, where it may be an Anglicised form of the Gaelic name Mac Amhalghaidh and is sometimes synonymous with Pollock.
Throughout its history, the surname Polley has required no specific family connection among all its bearers; rather, the commonality of the name reflects a shared cultural or geographical origin in the past. The diversity of spellings and the wide geographical spread attest to the name’s adaptability and persistence across centuries and continents.
Typical given names associated with the Polley surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Richard
- Robert
- Simon
- Stephen
Female
- Caroline
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Janet
- Jennifer
- Joanne
- Linda
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Michelle
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Polley in...
Braille
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Morse
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There are approximately 1,630 people named Polley in the UK. That makes it roughly the 4,989th most common surname in Britain. Around 25 in a million people in Britain are named Polley.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Polley
- Stan Polley - American entertainment manager (1922 to 2009)
- Vivian Polley - Cricketer (1880 to 1967)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.