Conaway
An English-Irish surname that is usually a spelling variant of Conway, with the same underlying place-based origin.
The #4,300 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,360 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Conaway is generally treated as a variant spelling of Conway. The name Conway can be traced either to the Welsh place name Conwy, from elements meaning roughly "river" and "water," or in Irish use to an Anglicized form of Gaelic surnames such as Ó Connmhacháin, which later aligned with Conway in English spelling. The form Conaway most likely reflects a phonetic or regional spelling change rather than a separate original surname.
History
The historical excerpts show Conaway alongside Conway and Connaway in London and emigrant lists, which supports the idea that the name often moved between spellings in English records. As with many surnames of this type, clerks frequently wrote the name as it sounded, so Conaway, Conway, and Connaway could all refer to the same family line in different documents. The name is most familiar today in the United States, where it survives as a relatively uncommon surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th- and early-20th-century surname dictionaries often treated Conaway as just one of several record spellings for Conway rather than as an entirely separate name.
From the historical record
“of Emigrants, p, 179). The forms of the name in Hotten's Lists are Conaway, Conoway, and Conway 8'. indei) ; c£ Greenaway and ttaway for Greenway and Ot^ I'Ss. Bapt.— John, a. Rowland Conoy-”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances