American Family Name Origins:
Bentley
Frequency: (13759)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: habitational name from any of various places, the chief of which are in Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and East and South Yorkshire. The place name is from Old English beonet ‘bent grass’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.
2. Probably an Americanized spelling of Swiss Bandle or Bandli or German Bentele, all short forms of the medieval personal name Pantaleon (see Pantaleo).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
