This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Raleigh.' Some spot (I cannot find it) in Devon where the family were settled so long ago as six centuries. Sir Walter Raleigh's father lived at Fardel in that county, and he was born at Hayes on the coast. Rawley seems to have been the pronunciation (the present orthography), hence the point of the many epigrams on Sir Walter.

The following spellings occur in the Index to Register of the University of Oxford.: Ralegh, Raleighe, Rallegh, Raughley, Raughlie, Raughly, Raugleigh, Rauleigh, Rauly, Rawlie, Rawleigh, Rawley, Rawleygh. Rawlei, Rawlighe, Rawlye, and Raylye.

From before the year 1600 the Rawleys of Co. Limerick appear frequently in such records as the Fiants, and as the majority of these are described as of Rawleystown, it must be assumed that they were well established there at that date-Rawleystown, I may add, was also called Ballynrawley. Even then the family name was sometimes given as Raleigh, which is now the usual form there. About the same time Richard and G. Raleigh, stated to be English descent, acquired a considerable property from the Fittons in the parish of Knockainy, which, like Rawleystown, is near Kilmallock, in the barony of Smallcounty, Co. Limerick. If the name de Ralleye can be accepted as a mediaeval form of Rawley it was at Knockainy as early as 1307, as we know from the report of a law case in the Justiciary Rolls.

Rawley appears in the “census” of 1659-60 as a principal Irish name in that barony with eleven families, while in the same document one Garrett Ralagh is listed as a titulado in the neighbouring Co. Limerick barony of Owney. There are some Raleighs in the Hearth Money Rolls for Co. Tipperary (1665) Rawleys and Rawleighs, too, are to be found among the testators in Limerick and also in Cashel wills of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the family spread into Co. Tipperary. Today they are mainly found in Co. Limerick. It would appear that in the early years of their association with Ireland the Rawleys were established also in Leinster, for Daniel Rawley of Tullaghanemore, Queen's Co. (Leix), was transplanted as an Irish papist in 1657 and then obtained 200 acres in Connacht; and as early as 1597 we find another Daniel Rawley among a number of Co. Kildare Irishmen who obtained “pardons”.

It is of interest to note that this man was given the alias of Donell O'Rhawley, which would suggest that his family was not of English descent at all or else that the official who compiled the list made a not very uncommon error.

(English) belonging to Raleigh (S. Devon, etc.); or Dweller at the Roe-Lea [Old English rá, a roe + leáh., a lea] Hugh de Ralegh.—Hund. Rolls (Devon).

This name (as is well known) was formerly pronounced Rawly— Sir Walter Rawleigh was one, that (it seems) Fortune had pickt out of purpose, of whom to make an example, or to use as her tennis-ball.— Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia, c. 1630.

“Roe Field” in Old English.

(English) One who came from Raleigh (red meadow), in Devonshire.

An ancient Devonshire family, who, according to Fuller, derived their name from "a well-known town" in that county. I cannot discover any town, or even village, so called, though the name is indissolubly connected with the shire, in the persons of the two famous Raleighs-William, Bishop of Winchester, temp. Henry III., and the renowned, but unfortunate, Sir Walter, who were both born within its limits. In the Rotuli Hundredorum for the county of Somerset, there is a Warinus de Raleghe.

Rhawlaw, in the Welsh, signifies a lieutenant, a vicar; and Rheoli, to govern, to rule. It may be local, from Ral, Raoul or Ralph, and high, or ley, a field or place.

(Welsh.) Rhawlaw, a vicar. (Evans.)

(English), Roebuck's field. (variant: Reehorst and van Renesse.)

From Rayleigh; a location name in Essex Or from the French, Ralet; a personal name.