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[Facts] Ireleigh / Ireley
I recently met a little girl named Ireleigh and I've been trying to find more information on the name's usage and especially on it's meaning. I know that the little girl I met, her parents had changed the spelling of the name from Ireley to Ireleigh because they wanted to honor their friend Leigh who had suggested the name.If you search Ireley on Google and come up with a couple times that it's used as a surname and a couple times it's in the name of a business in Great Britain. Searching for Ireleigh brings up name sites some of which say that particular spelling is popular in Australia. As for the meaning of the name as I think that it's probably of English or Irish origin breaking down the elements of the name -ley / -leigh would mean lee or meadow but what would Ire- refer to? Ireland/Eire/Erin? Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Not being able to figure out what a name means or comes from bugs me no end! :)
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it seems clear this is a place name (Ireley in Gloucestershire) so the first element being Ire (Ireland) is doubtful, however the options here are difficult yr "horn", yr "bow" (with normal change of OE front rounded /y/ to unrounded /i/) or some other element obscured by spelling change or loss of consonants, which is also common. unfortunately in this case we only have a relatively modern form, not an older version which might provide more clarity. (There is a person's name Ira/Irra/Iro but that is no more clear, it's possible this is a hypocoristic form of an element meaning iron)

This message was edited 9/6/2021, 10:59 AM

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Not sure if this helps or not but I found it on google spelled "Irelee" and it said something about the name meaning golden
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