Hanley

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• Irish : shortened form of O’Hanley, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÁinle ‘descendant of Áinle’, a personal name meaning ‘champion’. This is the name of a ruling family in Connacht; it is now common in southern Ireland.
• English : habitational name from any of various places, such as Handley in Cheshire, Derbyshire. Northamptonshire, and Dorset and Hanley in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, all from Old English hēan, the weak dative case (originally used after a preposition and article) of hēah ‘high’ + lēah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’, or from Handley Farm in Clayhanger, Devon, which is named from Old English hān ‘(boundary) stone’ + lēah.