Table of contents
Boy name origins & meanings
- Old English : Reed clearing; cleared wood
How Popular Is The Name Ridley
Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of various places in England so named, especially the one in Northumberland, which, like that in Cheshire, is derived from Old English geryd ‘channel’ + lēah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. Those in Essex and Kent appear in Domesday Book as Retleia and Redlege respectively, and get their names from Old English hrēod ‘reed’ + lēah.
- Possibly also an altered spelling of German Riedel or Riedler (see Ridler).