Dudley surname meaning

Dudley is an English habitational surname from Dudley in Worcestershire, recorded in medieval forms such as Duddeleye and Doddeleye. The place-name joins the Old English personal name Dudda with lēah, “woodland clearing.” In southern Ireland the English surname was sometimes adopted as an equivalent of Gaelic Ó Dubhdáleithe, and DAFN notes an occasional Americanized form of French Daudelin, but the Worcestershire place origin remains the primary dictionary reading for most families. Place is high confidence for that English town-name stream.