Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Mammcliue 1327 SR

• Mauntleys 1630 InqM

Etymology

Mantley Ho, Mammcliue 1327SR (p), Mauntleys 1630 InqM. The identification of the earliest spelling is not certain, but there is no difficulty over the phonetic change to Mantley, as OE  clif 'bank' is often represented by later -ley (cf. EPN i, 98). The first el. Mamm - may well be OE  mamme 'teat' used in hill-names like Mamhead (D 501), cf. also Mam Tor (Db 55 and Addenda), Mansfield (Nt 123); Ekwall also suggested that Mam might be a word related to Irish mamm 'breast', found in Irish and Scottish hill-names, but Welsh  mam 'mother' (from which this p.n. was presumably derived) is not known to have been so used. If, however, the identification is not correct, Mantley may be a late name from the ME  surname Mantel (Reaney 214) and lēah .