Mainly North American: modern coinage, taken from the traditionally Celtic-speaking region of north-west France, known in medieval Latin as Britannia, because it was settled by refugees from Cornwall and Devon following the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Its adoption as a given name has also been influenced by Britt, of which it is sometimes regarded as the full form. In recent years it has rapidly established itself as a popular name in the English-speaking world.
English: habitational name from any of the places called Bickley, in Worcestershire, Cheshire, and Kent, or Bickleigh in Devon, all of which are possibly named with an Old English personal name Bicca + Old English lēah ‘woodland clearing’. The first element could alternatively be an Old English word, bic ‘pointed ridge’.