Tracing the Barkley Family Name

Some records give Barclay; others give Barkley. Both point to the same Scottish family name. Its meaning, shared with Barclay, is “From Berkeley / birch lea”.

• Similar-sounding surnames on Herald Lab: Berkeley.
• Records show Barkley as one of the forms Barclay took over time.
• Census takers and immigration officers often wrote what they heard.
• Barkley ranked 2,764 in the 2010 US Census, with 13,051 people answering to the name. That puts it inside the top 5,000 US surnames.

Arms associated with the name

Arms linked to Barclay and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to. Want more than a summary? See the Barkley family name pack.