Conway
A surname with Welsh and Irish associations, often linked to the place name Conway in Wales or to Irish family lines that later claimed an English pedigree.
The #779 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,966 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Conway is usually explained as a locational surname from Conway, the old English form of the Welsh place name Conwy in Caernarfonshire. In that sense, it simply meant someone who came from that place. Some 19th-century writers also noted Irish Conway families and proposed English descent for them, but that pedigree tradition is less secure than the Welsh place-name origin.
History
The name appears in medieval and early modern records in several spellings, including Conaway and Conoway. It spread widely in Britain and Ireland and later became established in North America, where the surname took on a broad distribution. Bardsley remarked on its strong ramification in the United States, with early colonial bearers recorded in Virginia.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname writer called Conway one of the few Welsh town-names to have generated a surname.
From the historical record
“proceedings. D'Alton. CONWAY.* A pedigree of the Irish Conways derives them fi'om the Conwaj's of Worcestershire, whose lineage was de- duced from Sir William Conais, High Con- stable of England at the time of the Con- queror. D'Alton. COPE.* The ancestors of the baronet appear in the character of civil servants of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Conway
- Tim Conway (1933–2019)
- John Horton Conway (1937–2020)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.