Recorded as Yardley, Yeardley, Yearsley, and Yeardsley, this is an English surname. It is locational from any of the places called Yardley in the West Midlands, Essex, Northamptonshire, or Yarley in Somersetshire, or Yeardsley in Derbyshire. The derivation is from Old English pre 7th century word "gerd" meaning a pole or marker post, and "leah" a farm in a forest. As a locational name is is usually a 'from' name. That is to say a name given to a person who left their original homestead to move somewhere else, and was most easily identified by being called after their former village. This surname dates back to the 12th century, and other early recording include William de Erdeleg in the Curia Regis Rolls of Hertfordshirein 1221, Adam de Jerdeleye in th Subsidy Tax rolls of Worcestershire in 1280, and Robert Yeedeleye in the charters known as the Calendar of Inquisitiones post mortem in 1322. Church recordings include Christiane Yearsley who married John Ingllwood on August 20th 1569 at St. Olaves, Old Jewry, and Mary, the daughter of Josias and Mary Yeardley, who was christened on March 21st 1692 at St. Botolphs without Aldgate, all in the city of London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of Richard de Gerdelai. This was dated 1199, in the Pleas before the King or his Justices, during the reign of King John, 1199 - 1216. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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