Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from either of two places called Worsley, in Lancashire and Worcestershire. The former, which appears to be the main source of the surname, is probably named from the genitive case of an Old English personal name of uncertain form (probably with a first element weorc ‘work’, ‘fortification’) + Old English lēah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. The first element of the latter is probably from the genitive case of Old English weorf ‘draft cattle’ (a collective noun).