Last name: MOTLEY

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All you have to know about the last name MOTLEY

Last name frequency

MOTLEY : This last name is indexed 20,621 times on Geneanet!

Origin of last name

MOTLEY : English (Lincolnshire):: 1: nickname from Middle English motley ‘motley cloth or garments of a mixed color’ also ‘parti-colored variegated’ presumably denoting someone who wore motley or made motley clothing.2: habitational name from Mutley in Plymouth (Devon). The placename probably derives from Old English (ge)mōt ‘meeting’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing glade’.3: variant of Mutlow a habitational name from Mutlow in Marton (Cheshire) or from any of the many other minor places similarly named (Old English mōt-hlāw ‘meeting-mound’); there are at least three more in Cheshire five in Derbyshire four in Cambridgeshire and examples in Northamptonshire and Essex.

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