Holley

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin ; a village in Orleans County in the northwestern part of New York state
2. A surname borne by various people ; a small community in western New York State in the United States
3. Used as a family name ; also the name of a small village located in Orleans County, New York

Etymology: Holley is an English surname, and as a surname it has several separate origins that happen to produce the same spelling. One route runs through the holly tree: the name is a variant spelling of Holly, so the plant and the family name share a root. A second, more specific origin lies in Old English. Here the name is built from "hol", meaning "hollow", and "leah", meaning "wood, clearing or meadow", so it describes a hollow in the woodland, a place a family might have lived or farmed. A third possibility is stranger. Old English "hol ēage" meant "hollow eye", and the name may have been a nickname for someone who had lost an eye, a blunt and very personal way of identifying a neighbour. Because surnames were often fixed long after their first bearers, the spelling "Holley" now hides all three stories at once, and no single one can be assigned to any particular family without further evidence.