Dudley Family History

English (West Midlands): habitational name from Dudley in Worcestershire recorded as Duddeleye Doddeleye in the 13th and 14th centuries named from the Old English personal name Dudda (see Dodd) + Old English lēah ‘woodland clearing’.

Irish (southern Ireland): in Ireland when not the English name it was adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Ó Dubhdáleithe ‘descendant of Dubhdáleithe’ a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘black’ + dá ‘two’ + léithe ‘sides’.

Americanized form of French Daudelin.