Family name origins & meanings
- English and French : occupational name for a brothelkeeper, Middle English, Old French holier, hollier (a dissimilated variant of horier ‘pimp’, agent noun from hore, hure ‘whore’, of Germanic origin). It was probably also used as an abusive nickname.
- English : topographic name for someone who lived by a holly grove or conspicuous holly tree, from a derivative of Middle English holi(e), holin ‘holly (tree)’ (from Old English hold(g)n).