Liles
A surname usually treated as a spelling or regional form related to Little, ultimately meaning “small.”
The #3,463 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,926 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally linked to a nickname meaning “little” or “small.” The historical note you provided groups Liles with forms related to Little and suggests a Scandinavian source for the ending or vowel shape, but the core sense is still the idea of smallness. In practice, Liles may be a dialectal or variant spelling that developed beside other forms like Lyle, Lille, or Little.
History
The name appears in English records as one of several surname forms associated with the idea of “little.” The older source you supplied treats it as part of a broader family of related names rather than as a sharply separate origin, which is common with short medieval nicknames. In the United States, Liles is established but relatively uncommon.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname studies often grouped Liles together with similar-looking names because spelling was far less fixed before modern standardization.
From the historical record
“LiTT is the Ang.-Sas. lyt ; Litten perhaps the Swed. liUn ; LnxT, Llll, Liles, the Dan. W/e, all same aa Little, And Cokt is pro- bably the Old Norse kortT, same as Short. Smellie may be from Ang.-Sax. another form of SaiALL. But Smalley might be in some cases from Old Norse smali, a shepherd”
— English Surnames, and their place in the Teutonic family