Family name origins & meanings
- Southern English : apparently a habitational name from an unidentified place, perhaps a compound of the river name Ouse (Old English Usa, of ancient British origin, from ud- ‘water’) + Old English lēah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’.
- This surname was brought to North America by Major Thomas Owsley in about 1677; he was born in Stogursey in Somerset, England.