This is an English locational surname. Recorded as Crockley, Croxley, and possibly others, it originates from a now "lost" medieval village called Crockley near Romney in the county of Kent. The public reminder of this place is the surname and unusually a locality called Crockley Green near where the original village is believed to have stood. Some five thousand surnames of the British Isles originate from lost medieval villages, and it is no exaggeration to say that barely a week passes without another name being added to the list. Crockley probably translates as "The potters farm" from the Olde English word "croccere" a maker of crocks or pots, and "-leah", a fenced enclosure suitable for agriculture. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes probably in search of work, and settled somewhere else. The easiest way to identify these strangers was to call them by the name of their original homes. In this case the surname is certainly rare, suggesting that the original village was very small. Examples of early recordings taken from surviving church register recordings include Ann Croxley who married Raffe Letherland at St Andrews Enfield, in the county of Middlesex on October 4th 1607, and Villiers Crockley, a christening witness at St Botolph without Aldgate, in the city of London, on February 13th 1680.

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