Table of contents
Girl name origins & meanings
- Norse : Hero
- Irish : Wise one
Girl name variations
Boy name origins & meanings
- Old English : Hay meadow
How Popular Is The Name Halley
Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : habitational name from a place the location of which is disputed. Black gives two Scottish options, the first with no explanation, the second being Halley in Deerness, Orkney. Modern Scottish bearers may well get it from the Irish names (see 3 and 4 below).
- English : in part possibly a habitational name from Hawley in Hampshire, named from Old English heall ‘hall’, ‘large house’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.
- Irish (Counties Waterford and Tipperary) : shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAilche ‘descendant of Ailche’, possibly from the byname Ailchú meaning ‘gentle hound’. In some cases Halley has been used to replace Mulhall.
- Irish (County Clare) : shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÁille ‘descendant of Áille’, apparently from áille ‘beauty’, but possibly a variant of Ó hÁinle (see Hanley).