Maley

name

"maley" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Maley” is uncommon English (frequency #96,187 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#96,187
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname from Irish.

Corpus desk

Index EN-maley · Maley · English

Maley · rank #96,187 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #96,187
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH maken

Nearest frequency peer: maken (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “Maley”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “Maley” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Maley
PropertyValue
HeadwordMaley
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters5
Frequency rank#96,187
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Maley” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).Maleyfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “maken” (#96,186), “mallam” (#96,188), “mahr” (#96,185). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “Maley” is #96,187. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Maley is uncommon English at frequency #96,187 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname from Irish.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Maley, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: * As an Irish surname, variant of Malley, see O'Malley. * As a Carpathian Rusyn surname, variant of Mljec, from млєц (mljec, “to mill”), from Proto-Slavic *melti. * As a Czech and Slovak (Malý), Polish (Mały, Maly), and Slovene surname (Mali), from *malъ (“… The correct English form is Maley, spelled M-A-L-E-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A surname from Irish.

Etymology

* As an Irish surname, variant of Malley, see O'Malley. * As a Carpathian Rusyn surname, variant of Mljec, from млєц (mljec, “to mill”), from Proto-Slavic *melti. * As a Czech and Slovak (Malý), Polish (Mały, Maly), and Slovene surname (Mali), from *malъ (“little, small”). Compare Maly.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Maley"?
"Maley" is spelled M-A-L-E-Y.
What does "Maley" mean?
As a proper noun, "Maley" means: A surname from Irish.
What is the origin of the word "Maley"?
* As an Irish surname, variant of Malley, see O'Malley. * As a Carpathian Rusyn surname, variant of Mljec, from млєц (mljec, “to mill”), from Proto-Slavic *melti. * As a Czech and Slovak (Malý), Polish (Mały, Maly), and Slovene surname (Mali), fro... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Maley", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list