Date
Meaning & History
Habitational name, either a variant of MADELEY (a name common to several places, including one in Shropshire and two in Staffordshire), named in Old English as ‘Mada’s clearing’, from an unattested byname, MADA (probably a derivative of mad ‘foolish’) + leah ‘woodland clearing’; or from Medley on the Thames in Oxfordshire, named in Old English with middel ‘middle’ + eg ‘island’. Also the nickname for an aggressive person, from Middle English, Old French medlee ‘combat’, ‘conflict’ (Late Latin misculata).