Finley Family History
Finley Name Meaning
Scottish and Irish: from the Gaelic personal name Fionnlagh (Old Irish Findlaech) from fionn ‘white fair’ (see Finn ) + laoch ‘hero’ reinforced by an Old Norse name based on finn ‘Finn’ + leikr ‘fight’ or ‘hero’. The name is common in Ireland as well as Scotland. English: habitational name from one or more lost unidentified or altered placenames so named such as Philleyholme Dorset (recorded as Finelegh in 1280) derived from Old English fīna ‘wood-pecker’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’. Also a variant of Findlow from Finlow Hill in Over Alderley Cheshire (from Old English fīn ‘heap’ + hlāw ‘mound hill’ meaning ‘heaped mound’).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022