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Updated January 17, 2024

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Boy name origins & meanings

  • Gaelic : To stain

How Popular Is The Name Sully

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : habitational name from any of various places, for example in Calvados, Loiret, and Oise. The first of these is recorded in 1180 as Silleium, from the Gallo-Roman personal name Silius or Cilius + the Latin locative suffix -acum. The others are from a personal name Sol(l)ius + -acum.
  • Southern English : of uncertain origin; possibly a habitational name imported from France and so identical with 1, or alternatively a variant of Sulley. It may also be from the parish of Sully in Glamorgan, Wales, so called either from Old Norse sul ‘cleft’ + ey ‘island’ or from the Norman family name de Sulley (as in 1), which is recorded in Glamorgan in the 12th century.

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