Frequency: (4063)
(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 either of two places in West Yorkshire called Lindley, or from Linley in Shropshire and Wiltshire, all named from Old English līn ‘flax’ + lēah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, with epenthetic -d-, or from another Lindley in West Yorkshire (near Otley), named in Old English as ‘lime wood’, from lind ‘lime tree’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.Lindley in Leicestershire probably also has this origin, and is a further possible source of the surname.
2. German: habitational name from places in Bavaria and Hannover called Lindloh, meaning ‘lime grove’, or a topographic name with the same meaning (see Linde + Loh).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
