MANLEY MORRIS

Transferred use of the surname, which in most cases originated as a local name from places in Devon and Cheshire, named in Old English as ‘the common wood or clearing’, from (ge)mǣn ‘common, shared’ + lēah ‘wood, clearing’. Its choice as a first name may have been influenced by association with the vocabulary word manly and the hope that the qualities denoted by the adjective would be attributes of the bearer. This word may also lie behind some cases of the surname, as a nickname for a ‘manly’ person.

English and Scottish: from Maurice, an Old French personal name introduced to Britain by the Normans, Latin Mauritius, a derivative of Maurus (see Moore). This was the name of several early Christian saints. In some cases it may be a nickname of the same derivation for someone with a swarthy complexion.