Family name origins & meanings
- Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Toirdealbhaigh, a patronymic from the personal name Toirdhealbhach, a personal name meaning ‘like Thor’ or ‘like thunder’, composed of the Old Norse name þórr (see Thor) + Gaelic dealbhach ‘like’, ‘in the shape of’. Compare McCurley, from the lenited form.
- Altered spelling of German Thurley, from a personal name formed with Old High German tiuri ‘dear’, ‘valuable’ + līh (?), related to Gothic leiks ‘body’, ‘shape’.