Presley


Presley is a surname and given name.

Etymology

The name Presley is derived from the Old English preost, meaning "priest", and leah meaning "forest clearing".

History

Most instances of the surname Presley and variants Pressley and Pressly are thought to be of English origin. Later, if not found in some form originating also in Scotland, the name made its way across the border to that country, then on to Ireland and to the United States. However, some of the instances of the name in America may derive from the German surname Preslar, as individuals in some post-colonial American records are recorded under both names.
The surname came to prominence in the person of Elvis Presley, the American music icon, whose family, according to genealogists, has come from the German town of Neuhochstadt in Palatinate, via a certain Johannes Valentin Preslar that emigrated with his sons to North Carolina in the early 1700s.
In the United States and Australia, however, Presley is often an Anglicized form of German surnames such as Preslar and Presler. This is thought to be a habitational name from Breslau, Poland. Former President Jimmy Carter, through his mother, is thought to descend from Johann Valentin Preslar/Presler, who along with his family reached America and later the then frontier area of the central Carolinas sometime during the mid-18th century. Elvis Presley may have had the same ancestor.
Today, Presley ranks as the 1,825 most common surname in the United States.

People with the surname