Raleigh

Raleigh is an English surname with a place-name origin traditionally connected with roe deer and a clearing. It belongs to the many family names that began as descriptions of a location. The surname became especially well known through Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan writer, courtier, and explorer.

Raleigh, North Carolina, was named in his honor, giving the name an additional American place association. A family may therefore be thinking of a city, a surname, or the older woodland meaning when choosing it. The written gh does not usually produce a separate consonant in the familiar English pronunciation. Its surname history has made it usable as a first name for both boys and girls without changing the geographic meaning.