Hartley

Hartley is an English surname and place name formed from older elements for a stag and a clearing. The first part is the animal word hart, rather than the modern word heart. That distinction gives Hartley a specific landscape and wildlife history even when its sound suggests a different personal association.

Poet Hartley Coleridge, the son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, provides a literary namesake. Hartley is used for boys and girls, and its two syllables allow it to remain the full everyday name. Harley is close in sound but has a different derivation. A family choosing Hartley for nature can keep the stag-and-clearing story distinct from those neighboring names.