Barley Family History
Barley Name Meaning
English: habitational name from any of various places called Barley. Those in Lancashire and West Yorkshire are named with Old English bar ‘wild boar’ or bere ‘barley’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. A place of the same name in Hertfordshire has as its first element an unattested Old English byname Be(o)ra (from bera ‘bear’). English: metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of barley, from Old English bærlic, originally an adjective derivative of bær ‘barley’ (a byform of bere). Altered spelling of South German Behrle or Beerli, from a Germanic personal name formed with Old High German bero ‘bear’ (the animal).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press