Hensley is an English surname from a place name usually explained as "Hean's meadow" or "clearing of the stallions", from the Old English hengest, stallion, and leah, clearing. It joined the wave of -ley surnames for girls, from Hadley to Kinsley, that peaked in the late 2010s. Hensley rose from about number 1820 in 2015 to a peak of number 1108 in 2020 and has slipped to number 2071 in 2025.