Ashley
A habitational surname meaning someone from a place called Ashley, originally “ash-tree clearing” or “ash meadow.”
The #900 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,020 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ashley is a habitational surname taken from one of many places in England called Ashley. The name comes from Old English elements usually explained as "æsc" meaning ash tree and "lēah" meaning a clearing, meadow, or lightly wooded pasture. In older surname books, the first element was sometimes also connected with the word for spear, since ash wood was famously used for spear shafts; the place-name sense, however, is the standard explanation.
History
The surname arose independently in several parts of England wherever people took their name from a local Ashley. It became established as a common English place-name surname and later spread widely through Britain and to the English-speaking world. Bardsley and other 19th-century writers also list Ashley among the many surnames derived from parish names.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Ashley is one of those surnames that can point to several different villages, not just one family line.
From the historical record
“Kent, Derby, and other counties. ASHLEY. Parishes in Staffordshire, Wilts, Cambridge, &,c. ASHLIN. Ashling, a parish in Sussex. ASH]MAiSr. In A-Sax. poetry cesc or ash is constantly used in the sense of spear, because the staff of a spear v.-as usually made of that wood. So the Latin fc;r?<;« signifies both iron…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom