Francis Lee Utley (May 25, 1907 in Watertown, Wisconsin – March 8, 1974) was a folklorist, linguist, medievalist, scholar of onomastics and literature, educator, and author.
At Harvard, he came under the influence of George Lyman Kittredge in English who encouraged Utley's study of folklore.
He also served as visiting professor of folklore at the University of California at Berkeley and UCLA.
Among his honors were being named Fellow of the American Folklore Society, Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, and Executive Council member of the Modern Language Association.
[1] He also is often cited for diffusionist ideas about relations of the sources of New World folktales from Europe.