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HOLLEY Family History

Recorded in several spellings including Hollies, Hollis, Holley, Holly, Hollins, Holling, Hollings, Hollen, Hollens and possibly others, this is a pre 7th century Northern English, occasionally Scottish, and probably with a Norse-Viking association. It is both locational from any of the places called Hollin, Hollins, or Holly, or it can be topographical, and describe a person who lived by a holegn, a 'hollow eye', - a group of holly trees - in a hollow. The Old Norse word 'holmr' meaning an inland island, one on a lake or river, is closely related, and certainly responsible for some of the modern spellings.