The story
- Old English · derived fromclif“cliff; river-bank”
- English todayCleveley
Habitational surname from a minor place in the parish of Enstone, Oxfordshire, from Old English clif (“cliff; river-bank”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”). Equivalent to cliff + -ley (“lea”).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishclif all →
cliffCliftonCliffordCliffe
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.