Tilley
Usually a surname from place names in Normandy, though in some cases it may also be a nickname or shortened form of William.
The #2,318 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,593 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Tilley is most commonly explained as a locational surname, taken from one of several places called Tilly in Normandy, especially in Calvados and Eure. The name entered England after the Norman period and appears early in medieval records as a place-based byname. Some older surname writers also suggested it could sometimes be a pet form or nickname linked to William, but the place-name origin is the main explanation.
History
Medieval records cited by older surname dictionaries include bearers styled de Tilly, showing the name in Norman use before it became established in England. The surname later appears in English records in several spellings, including Tilly and Tillie. Because it is linked to Norman place names, it is especially associated with families of English and Norman-French historical background.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some early bearers were described with the form de Tilly, a classic sign of a surname that began as a place-name label.
From the historical record
“tiles. Le Tilere. H.R. TILLEY. 1. Tilly is a town or village in the deiiartnient of Calvados in Nor- mandy; and there is a second place so called in the department of Eure. Tilly, Tille. Hund. Rolls. 2. A ' nurseuame ' of William. TILLIE. See Tilley. TILLY. See Tilley. TILLMAN. A husbandman. " Because”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom