Barkley
/ˈbɑːrkli/noun
A surname and place name, originally meaning someone from a birch-tree clearing or grove.
Did you know?Barkley is generally traced to Old English place-name elements for ‘birch’ and ‘wood/clearing,’ showing how surnames once worked like tiny maps of where a family came from.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
beorc
“birch tree”
Old English
OE
lēah
“wood, clearing, meadow”
Middle English
English
Berkley / Barkley
“a place name meaning birch clearing or birch wood”
14th Century
English
de Berkeley / Barkley
“a hereditary surname taken from a place”
Modern English
English
Barkley
“a surname and place name”