Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from places called Chipley, in Somerset and Devon, or from Chipley Abbey in Suffolk, each having as the second element Old English lēah ‘woodland clearing’. In the case of Chipley, Somerset, the first element was probably the Old English personal name Cippa, while Chipley in Devon is named with Old English cēap ‘price’, ‘purchase’, and the Suffolk place name derives from Old English cipp ‘log’.