English: habitation name from any of the various places so called. Most, e.g. those in Oxfordshire, Suffolk, and Warwickshire, get the name from the weak dative case (originally used after a preposition and article) of Old English hēah high + Old English lēah wood, clearing. Others, for example one near Ludlow in Shropshire, have as their first element Old English henn hen, wild bird. Others still, for example those in Somerset and Surrey, are ambiguous between the two possibilities.
Variant: Henly.
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