English names are personal names used in, or originating in, England . In England, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world , a complete name usually consists of one or more given names , commonly referred to as first names, and a (most commonly patrilineal , rarely matrilineal ) family name or surname , also referred to as a last name. The given names after the first are often referred to as middle names .
12-475: Hayley (pronounced / ˈ h eɪ l i / ) is an English given name . It is derived from the English surname Haley , which in turn was based on an Old English toponym , a compound of heg "hay" and leah "clearing or meadow". While it can be used for males, Hayley is most commonly a female given name. This use became popular following the surge to prominence of child actress Hayley Mills (b. 1946), but
24-594: A legal name, though most people use their birth name (as registered on the Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths , regulated by the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 , which allows only characters that are used in English or Welsh), often using a spouse's surname (proved with a marriage certificate), or (if an adult) a name formally declared by deed poll . No regulations include any specific provisions regarding what names are acceptable. Nonetheless,
36-606: Is a result of a combination of greater individualism in the choice of names, and the increasing ethnic heterogeneity of the UK population, which led to a wider range of frequent given names from non-European traditions. Oliver and Olivia were the most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2018. According to Christopher Daniell, in 1140 marked what might be the first recorded use of a modern surname, inherited by multiple generations. These were not always regularly formed: for example,
48-656: Is not unusual for compound surnames to be composed of separate words not linked by a hyphen, for example Iain Duncan Smith , a former leader of the Conservative Party , whose surname is "Duncan Smith". FitzGerald (surname) FitzGerald or Fitzgerald , is an Irish surname of Hiberno-Norman origin. It is a patronymic derived from the prefix Fitz - from the Latin filius- plus Gerald , thus meaning "son of Gerald”. In Goidelic languages , e.g.
60-426: Is the surnames of important families used as given names, originally to indicate political support or patronage. Many examples have now become normal names chosen because parents like them, and any political sense lost. Most are male names like Cecil, Gerald , Howard, Percy, Montague, Stanley or Gordon, though some of those some have female versions like Cecilia or Geraldine. Other languages have few equivalents, although
72-534: The General Register Office and various organizations that help with creating and enrolling deed polls will reject anything that is unreasonable (racist, offensive, fraudulent, implying a title of nobility not held, unpronounceable, not in the Latin script, etc.). Double-barrelled names may be formed for a variety of reasons, including combining of spouses' surnames upon marriage or, more commonly in
84-514: The boys born in London in the year 1510, 24.4% were named John , 13.3% were named Thomas and 11.7% were named William. A trend towards more diversity in given names began in the mid-19th century, and by 1900, only 22.9% of the newborn boys, and 16.2% of the newborn girls in the UK shared the top three given names for each gender. The trend continued during the 20th century, and by 1994, these figures had fallen to 11% and 8.6%, respectively. This trend
96-706: The given name Hayley, or variant spellings of it, include: English given name Few given names used in England have English derivations. Many names are of Hebrew ( Daniel , David , Elizabeth , Susan ) or Greek ( Nicholas , Dorothy , George , and Helen ) origin. Some are Germanic names , sometimes adopted via the transmission of French ( Robert , Richard , Gertrude , Charlotte ) or originate from idoeuropean ( Adrian , Amelia , Patrick ) or Celtic. A small fraction of given names has an actual English derivation (see Anglo-Saxon names ), such as Alfred , Ashley , Edgar , Edmund , Edward , Edwin , Harold and Oswald . A distinctive feature of Anglophone names
108-526: The name was not used with any frequency prior to the 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1980s and early 1990s in the UK and (along with variants such as Haley and Hailey) in the 1990s and 2000s in the US, but since the 2000s has again declined significantly. Hayley is one of the top 1,500 female names in the US today. Another spelling of this name that is the least common way to spell it is Haylie . Notable people with
120-433: The past, adding another family's surname as a condition of inheritance. Compound surnames in English feature two or more words, often joined by a hyphen or hyphens: for example, Henry Hepburne-Scott . A few families have three or four words making up their surname, such as Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton and Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry . However, it
132-477: The saint's surname Xavier is often used by Roman Catholics. During the majority of the 19th century, the most popular given names were Mary for girls and either John or William for boys. Throughout the Early Modern period, the diversity of given names was comparatively small; the three most frequent male given names accounted for close to 50% of the male population throughout this period. For example, of
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#1732790389085144-460: The sons of a certain French named Robert used a modern inheritable surname, FitzGerald , in honour of an earlier relative, named Gerald . While it is normal for a child to be given one of their parents' surnames, traditionally the father's (or increasingly some combination of the two), there is nothing in UK law that explicitly requires this. Under English common law, a person may use any name as
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