Paley Family History
Paley Name Meaning
English (mainly Yorkshire): from a lost or unidentified place in Lancashire or Yorkshire apparently named with Old English lēah ‘woodland clearing’ as the final element. Compare Paley Green in Giggleswick (Yorkshire) where the surname is recorded in 1379 but this may have been named from the surname. English: perhaps from a presumed Middle English male personal name Palli (Old Danish Palli from páll ‘pole’). Jewish (from Belarus) Belorussian and Ukrainian: occupational name for a distiller derived from an East Slavic word meaning ‘to burn’ (Russian palit Ukrainian palyty). English: sometimes a variant of Pawley .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022