Medley

Family name origins & meanings

• English : habitational name, either a variant of Madeley (a name common to several places, including one in Shropshire and two in Staffordshire), named in Old English as ‘Māda’s clearing’, from an unattested byname, Māda (probably a derivative of mād ‘foolish’) + lēah ‘woodland clearing’; or from Medley on the Thames in Oxfordshire, named in Old English with middel ‘middle’ + ēg ‘island’.
• English : nickname for an aggressive person, from Middle English, Old French medlee ‘combat’, ‘conflict’ (Late Latin misculata).