Bailey Family History

English: status name for a steward or official from Middle English bailli ‘manager administrator’ (Old French baillis from Late Latin baiulivus an adjectival derivative of baiulus ‘attendant carrier porter’).

English: habitational name from Bailey in Little Mitton Lancashire named with Old English beg ‘berry’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’.

English: occasionally a topographic name for someone who lived by the outer wall of a castle from Middle English (Old French) bailli ‘outer courtyard of a castle’ (Old French bail(le) ‘enclosure’ a derivative of bailer ‘to enclose’).

This term became a placename in its own right denoting a district beside a fortification or wall as in the case of the Old Bailey in London which formed part of the early medieval outer wall of the city.

Altered form of French Bailly.