WESTLEY
The surname Westley is firmly rooted in English heritage, deriving from the Old English personal name Westlēah which translates literally as “western meadow.” The name is a classic example of a locational surname, originally assigned to individuals who resided near or were otherwise associated with a settlement named Westley. Variants of the name that appear in historical documents include Westleigh and Westly, all expressing the same basic geographic reference.
In Anglo‑Saxon England the elements that form the name are well‑known. West simply denotes the direction west, a common component in place‑names across the continent, while leah (or leage) denotes a grove, glade or clearing within a wood. The term may also acquire a specialised sense as a “water meadow” or a low‑lying meadow. Consequently, places named Westley were typically situated near such clearings or low-lying pastures in the western part of an estate or woodland.
Documentary evidence of these places spans several counties. The parish of Westley in West Suffolk is noted in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “Westlea.” Hamlets bearing the same designation occur in Shropshire and near Winchester in Hampshire. A further location, Westley (Waterless), lies close to Newmarket in Cambridgeshire and is recorded in Anglo‑Saxon wills as “Westle” in a document dated 1043. Similar appellations appear in Devonshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Lancashire, all stemming from the same Old English elements and occasionally recorded as Westleigh.
Locational surnames such as Westley were initially adopted by local landowners and lords of the manor, providing a clear form of identification for those who departed their birthplace in order to settle elsewhere. The earliest surviving references to the surname outside of place‑names include Adam de Westeleg of Lancashire in 1242 and Richard de Westleye of Warwickshire in 1332. A later documentary example is Elinor, daughter of Edward Westley, who was christened at Bubbenhall in Warwickshire on 27 September 1563.
The Westley family was granted a Coat of Arms which features a silver shield. Within the heraldic description a chevron is placed between six billets in chief and three crosses crosslet fitchee at the base, all rendered in black. The earliest recorded spelling of the family name appears in the feudal documents from the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, dated around 1095, where it is written as Wlmar de Westle during the reign of King William the Conqueror, known as “Rufus,” from 1087 to 1100. This attests to the long establishment of the surname in the English historical record.
Typical given names associated with the Westley surname
Male
- Adam
- Andrew
- Anthony
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Peter
- Richard
- Stephen
- William
Female
- Emma
- Gillian
- Jane
- Janet
- Jennifer
- Julie
- Karen
- Louise
- Margaret
- Mary
- Maureen
- Sarah
- Susan
- Valerie
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 Westley in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 2,141 people named Westley in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,957th most common surname in Britain. Around 33 in a million people in Britain are named Westley.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Westley
- Graham Westley - Football player and manager and medal winner
- Tom Westley - Cricketer
- Terry Westley - Football manager
- Shane Westley - Football player and manager
- Roger Westley - Cricketer (1947 to 1982)
- Sam Westley - Football player
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.