Given name & surname
Hawley
“from the hedged meadow”
Hawley is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “from the hedged meadow.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “from the hedged meadow.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
From Old English heall (“hall, dwelling, house”), from Old English hāliġ (“holy, sacred”), built from English hall + -leigh (“lea”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1907. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Hawley through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 217
- 150 boys · 67 girls
- Most popular year
- 1918
- 13 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 6 in 2018. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 8 in 1982. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 311 as a first name in 2020; 17,716 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Hawley’s family of names
Hawley has a related form in Hawlea. Hawley has a related form in Hawleah. Hawley has a related form in Hawlee.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 7
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Hawley
- Hawley Harvey CrippenAmerican executed homeopath (1862–1910)
- Hawley PrattAmerican film director and animator (1911–1999)
- Hawley Bennett-AwadCanadian equestrianborn 1977
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Hawley, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Morley
“woman from the moor” · “from the meadow on the moor”
92% boys · 8% girls
Shepley
“from the meadow of sheep”
77% boys · 23% girls
Thornley
“from the thorny meadow”
78% boys · 22% girls
Ridgeley
“one who lives at the meadow'sridge”
75% boys · 25% girls
Murrell
“of the shining sea”
85% boys · 15% girls
Ashbourne
“ash-tree”
88% boys · 12% girls
Ashurst
“ash-tree”
—
Florenz
“resembling a flower; one who is flourishing”
72% boys · 28% girls