Wellesley Surname

534,162nd
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 604 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
United States
Highest density in:
Jersey

Wellesley Surname Definition:

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Welesley.' Mr. Lower says, 'a locality in Somersetshire.' A standard-bearer of this name served under Henry II. The name soon became corrupted to Wesley, and only at the beginning of the 18th century a branch of the family resumed the original form.

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Wellesley Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States2011:1,803,278118,231
England1641:339,74424,836
Jamaica1211:23,7191,948
Singapore211:262,27211,611
New Zealand191:238,33322,631
Canada151:2,456,373146,130
Australia131:2,076,59293,242
Jersey101:9,9202,003
Scotland81:669,22723,443
United Arab Emirates61:1,527,04651,993
Nigeria51:35,428,552388,973
India51:153,413,076951,030
Mexico21:62,063,10283,384
Indonesia21:66,124,597756,638
Cuba21:5,761,35813,825
Switzerland21:4,106,458122,336
Sweden11:9,846,757347,448
Ireland11:4,708,93929,543
Ecuador11:15,905,84650,210
Wales11:3,094,53244,023
Germany11:80,505,459560,955
Spain11:46,752,036156,870
Russia11:144,123,056881,408
Malaysia11:29,494,225409,885
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
Ireland71:632,83819,259
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England541:451,39625,813
Scotland131:287,9409,345
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States131:3,862,976168,604

Wellesley (1,455) may also be a first name.

Wellesley Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Welesley.' Mr. Lower says, 'a locality in Somersetshire.' A standard-bearer of this name served under Henry II. The name soon became corrupted to Wesley, and only at the beginning of the 18th century a branch of the family resumed the original form. Patronymica Britannica. v. Wesley and Wolsey.

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

(English) belonging to Wellesley = the Well’s Lea [Old English wiell, genit. wielles, a spring + leáh (Middle English legh, ley, &c.), a meadow] Tho’ de Welleslegh.—Inq. adq. Damn. (Soms.), A.D. 1310-11.

Philip’ de Welleslege.—Charter-Rolls (Soms.), A.D. 1331.

The Index to the ‘Cal. MSS. Dn. & Ch. Wells’ has the following forms of the Middle English period:—Welleslegh, Weleslee, Weleslegh, Welesleghe, Welesleye, Wellesleghe, Welles- leigh, Wellesleye, Wellesleygh, Welleslia, Wellislegh.

. . . Waleran de Wellesley, who is stated to have been of a branch of Wellesley, of Wellesley, co. Somerset. This Waleran was justice itinerant for Ireland in 1261.—Burke s Peerage, &c., sub nomine ‘Wellington.’ This name has the appearance of embodying a personal name, but apparently it does not.

Cp. Wesley.

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

This family was established in Meath in 1174., some branches becoming hibernicized. MIF 298

A Guide to Irish Names (1964) by Edward MacLysaght

This great family, "terque quaterque beati"-(if having three or four titles in the peerage may be so construed)-derive their existing name from a locality called Welesley, in Somersetshire, which county, centuries later, supplied to the hero of a hundred fights the title of Duke of Wellington. But the ancient patronymic of the race is Colley, Cowley, or Colly, and their ancestor settled in Ireland in the reign of King Henry VIII. from the county of Rutland. The maternal ancestor, whose descendant took the name of Wesley, or Wellesley, in the earlier part of the XVIII. century, was standard-bearer to King Henry II. in 1172, and received large grants in the counties of Meath and Kildare. The old name of the family was Wesley, and Wellesley is only a comparatively recent resumption of the original surname. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists, is said to have been of the same stock.

Patronymica Britannica (1860) by Mark Antony Lower

Wellesley Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name Wellesley Come From? nationality or country of origin

The surname Wellesley (Arabic: ولسلي) is most common in The United States. It can also appear as:. Click here for further possible spellings of this name.

How Common Is The Last Name Wellesley? popularity and diffusion

The last name is the 534,162nd most common last name on a global scale, borne by approximately 1 in 12,065,473 people. The last name occurs mostly in The Americas, where 57 percent of Wellesley are found; 36 percent are found in North America and 36 percent are found in Anglo-North America. Wellesley is also the 204,463rd most common forename worldwide. It is borne by 1,455 people.

The surname Wellesley is most frequent in The United States, where it is borne by 201 people, or 1 in 1,803,278. In The United States it is mostly found in: Texas, where 17 percent reside, Missouri, where 13 percent reside and California, where 10 percent reside. Apart from The United States this surname exists in 23 countries. It is also found in England, where 27 percent reside and Jamaica, where 20 percent reside.

Wellesley Family Population Trend historical fluctuation

The frequency of Wellesley has changed over time. In The United States the share of the population with the last name rose 1,546 percent between 1880 and 2014; in England it rose 304 percent between 1881 and 2014; in Scotland it decreased 38 percent between 1881 and 2014 and in Ireland it decreased 86 percent between 1901 and 2014.

Wellesley Last Name Statistics demography

The religious devotion of those holding the last name is primarily Anglican (100%) in Ireland.

In The United States those holding the Wellesley last name are 24.66% more likely to be registered with the Republican Party than the national average, with 71.43% being registered with the party.

The amount Wellesley earn in different countries varies greatly. In United States they earn 17.27% less than the national average, earning $35,698 USD per year and in Canada they earn 37.93% more than the national average, earning $68,528 CAD per year.

Phonetically Similar Names

Wellesley Name Transliterations

TransliterationICU LatinPercentage of Incidence
Wellesley in the Arabic language
ولسليwlsly-

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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Wellesley
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis