Origin of the Name Wiley
The origin of the name
Wiley was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Wiley
include Wylie, Wyllie, Willey and Wyley. This is a locational name meaning 'of Willey' from Parishes in the diocese of Hereford and Worcester. This name is of Anglo-Saxon descent spreading to the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales in early times and is found in many mediaeval manuscripts throughout the above islands. Examples of such are a Richard de Wyly, County Wiltshire, who was recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls', England, in the year 1273 and an Edmund Willie, County Somerset, who was registered in the University of Oxford, in the year 1595. A branch of the family moved to Ireland where the name is now numerous in Ulster, chiefly in Counties Antrim, Armagh and Tyrone. The first recorded in Ireland was a Richard Wylly of Castletowncooley, County Louth, in the year 1449. Most of the family found in Ulster were introduced there at the time of the Plantation of Ulster. In Gaelic the name is O'hUallaigh.
The Wiley coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Wiley descendants.