Wiley
A surname with more than one possible origin, most often treated as a form of Wylie or as a name linked to places called Wil(e)y/Wyly.
The #713 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,337 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Historical sources point to more than one source for Wiley. One line of explanation treats it as a variant of Wylie, ultimately from an Old English word related to trickery or craftiness, while another connects it to place-names such as Wiley/Wylye in Wiltshire or Willey in other counties. In that place-name sense, the name would be locational, referring to a settlement or landscape feature, rather than to a personal quality.
History
The surname appears in English records in several spellings, including Wiley, Wilye, Wyllie, and Wyleigh. Nineteenth-century surname writers disagreed on whether it was mainly a nickname surname meaning 'wily' or a habitational surname from a place-name. In Ireland, Matheson records Wiley as a surname in the nineteenth-century index of names, showing wider British Isles use beyond England. It remains common in the United States today, helped by later immigration and spelling simplification.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some old surname books even printed Wiley alongside surnames meaning 'shrewd' or 'crafty,' showing how easily it was linked with the adjective 'wily.'
From the historical record
“2 a diphthongized form of Wills, q.v. WILEY (Eng.) i = Wylie, q.v. 2 Wily, Sly . [f. O.E. wil, a wile] WILFORD (Eng.) Bel. to Wilford (Notts), 13th cent. Wyleford, Wylleford, late 12th cent. Wileford, Domesday Wilesforde (where the palatal .y {sh), as in other cases, represents O.E!. guttural g) = the Willow -Ford…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)