Family name origins & meanings
- English (Norfolk) : habitational name from Madehurst in Sussex, which gets its name from Old English mǣd ‘meadow’ (see Mead 1) + hyrst ‘wooded hill’. This place name appears in 12th-century records in the Normanized form Medl(i)ers. The surname is found in Norfolk as early as the 13th century in the form de Medlers; the landowning family that bore it was in vassalage to the Earl of Surrey, who had large estates in both Sussex and Norfolk.