Where the Bradley name comes from

Bradley has two unrelated origins, one English and one Irish. The English name joins the Old English words brād, "broad", and lēah, "woodland". It began as a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow". Villages called Bradley stand in Derbyshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, and North Yorkshire has a High Bradley and a Low Bradley. People from these villages took the name with them as a surname, sometimes spelled Bradly or Broadley.

The Irish Bradleys have a separate story: their name is an Anglicisation of Ó Brolacháin, also written O'Brallaghan, a family from County Tyrone. From Tyrone the family spread to counties Cork, Donegal and Londonderry, and on to England. Like many English surnames, Bradley is also used as a given name.