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Updated March 7, 2024

Table of contents

Boy name origins & meanings

  • Old English : Reed clearing; cleared wood

Boy name variations

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).

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