The Name

A Place

Hopley Spelling

Hopley Distribution

Links

Many British surnames are derived from either location, occupation, family relationships or physical appearance. Hopley is no exception,C. W. Bardsley's 'A   Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames'  suggests that Hopley is a local  name, derived from the combination of Hope (meaning small valley) and Ley  (meaning meadow or uncultivated enclosure) and believes it to originate from  the County of Cheshire. It is not a common name and indeed it's not specifically  mentioned in either P.H.Reaney's ' A Dictionary of British Surnames'  or Hanks and Hodge's ' A Dictionary of Surnames' .

Although there appears to be no town or village by the name, the Ordnance Survey's Gazetteer of Great Britain has some references to Hopley, namely:

• Hopley Coppice and Hopley Farm near Hodnet, Shropshire;      

• Hopley House at Middlewich, Cheshire;

• Hopley's Green and The Hopleys at Almeley, Hereford.

J.McN. Dodgson's 'Place Names of Cheshire'   makes reference to Hopley at:                                      

• Hopley's Pipes at Wincham, near Northwich. (part 2 p137)      

• Hopley House at Occlestone Green, near Middlewich (part 2 p253)

• Hopley's croft at Malpas (part 4 p2)

The book also suggests the origin of the name as ' grasshopper meadow' coming from hopa meaning grasshopper. Hope exists in Flintshire, Shropshire, Powys, Devon and Derbyshire so it's possible that some of these places have a connection.

The spelling has been fairly consistent since the 17 ^th century, probably due to the parish registers preserving the phonetic spelling. Some earlier variations include:

Hopply, Hoppelay, Hopplie, Hoply,Hoppelegh

Some early Hopleys found in records include:

Using the Hopley entries from the civil registration births indexes and grouping them by their registration districts. I have been able to create a thematic map, using the computer technology of GIS (Geographical Information System), to show the distribution of the surname across England and Wales (the darker the green the higher percentage of Hopleys) . Population migration to industrial cities and towns due to economic and social reasons was a major feature of the nineteenth century and is distinctly evident in this example.

Major industrial centres of Liverpool, Manchester, Yorkshire, The Midlands and London attracted people from the more rural areas. The cotton industry provided massive employment  in the north west in the mid 19th Century. Many Hopleys emigrated overseas to Canada, Australia and to the USA. Some have also been found in Ireland, South Africa and Tazmania whether these were originally from England I have not been able to determine.

On the question of who was the 'father' of the Hopleys, it is likely that separate groups of Hopleys have developed rather than one original source.