Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from Onley or Olney in Northamptonshire, possibly also from Onneley in Staffordshire. Like Olney, Onley was named in Old English as ‘lonely (āna, from ān ‘one’) glade (lēah)’; Onneley has the same second element, and possibly the same initial one, though this may alternatively have been a personal name, Onna.