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Surname Etymology and Meaning of HOWLEY

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English (chiefly Yorkshire): habitational name from any of various places so called, for example in Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and West Yorkshire. The first is from a lost place in Lower Bebington, named from Old English hol ‘hollow’ + weg ‘way’; the second is from Old English hol + leah ‘woodland clearing’; and the last, Howley Hall in Moreley, is from Old English hofe ‘ground ivy’ + leah.
2. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUallaigh ‘descendant of Uallach’, a personal name or byname from uallach ‘proud’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)