Paley

Paley is a surname and a toponym used in various contexts. The name is associated most prominently with individuals who influenced media, mathematics, and culture, as well as with institutions named in their honor.

William S. Paley (1889–1975) was an American media executive who led CBS and helped shape the modern broadcasting industry. The Paley name is carried by the Paley Center for Media, a nonprofit organization in New York City and Beverly Hills that preserves and presents television and radio history through a library, archives, and public screenings.

In mathematics and related fields, Paley appears in the names of several theories and constructs, most notably Paley graphs, a family of graphs defined from finite fields, and related results in combinatorics and number theory. These are named after a mathematician bearing the surname Paley who studied them.

Beyond these, the surname Paley is borne by other figures across literature, science, and public life, reflecting the broader history of the name.