WEEKLY
Weekly is an English locational surname derived from the Old English word wic, meaning dwelling or settlement. In many cases the name was applied to people who lived near, or worked at, a dairy farm or a site where cheese was made, or who resided close to a place called Wick or Wickley.
The surname is believed to have originated in the village of Weekley, situated near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Weekley appears very early in written English history, being recorded in the Saxon charter collection known as the Cartulium Saxoni for the year 843 AD. This makes it one of the earliest place names preserved in surviving documents. The village name is also found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is spelt “Wiclei”; the interpretation of this form is “the enclosure or clearing among the elms”. Over the next nine centuries the spelling of the village – and consequently the surname – has remained remarkably stable.
Early members of the family include Anne Weekely, who married Thomas Reyner at Bedford in 1647, and Thomas Weekly, who wed Jane Brown at St George's Chapel, Hanover Square, London in 1702. The surname has been recorded in a variety of spellings, such as Weakley, Weekely, Weekley and Weekly, reflecting the fluid orthography of earlier English. Later documents also show forms such as Wykeley, Wickley, Weekale and Wykelay.
Although the name is predominantly English, it is also found in Scotland, where it is sometimes rendered as Weckly, and in Ireland, where Clann does translate it as the AnglicisedWeeklee. In the 19th century a bear of the name emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, and the surname later appeared in the United States, largely among Scots‑Irish settlers in the South and Midwest. By the 20th century the name remained uncommon, with individuals bearing it distributed sparsely across the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States.
Today the surname Weekly remains rare but traceable; genealogical records allow individuals to identify ancestral links to the village of Weekley, the 843 AD charters, the 1086 Domesday entry, and the scattered modern bearers of the name across Britain, Canada and the United States.
Typical given names associated with the Weekly surname
Male
- Chris
- Paul
Female
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 Weekly in...
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There are approximately 101 people named Weekly in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around two in a million people in Britain are named Weekly.
