Conway - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Connmhaigh
Meaning: “hound of the plain”
Traditional stronghold: Clare, Mayo
Pronunciation: KON-way
History of the Conway name
Conway looks Welsh, but in Ireland it is almost always an anglicisation of one of several unrelated Gaelic names: Mac Connmhaigh of Thomond in County Clare, Ó Connmhacháin of Sligo and Mayo, and Ó Conbhuidhe ('yellow hound') of south Galway, this last also rendered Conboy. Because these distinct septs were all flattened into one convenient English form, Conways today are found right across Connacht, Clare and Ulster without a single ancestral homeland. The Thomond family were the most prominent in Gaelic times, while the Connacht names account for most modern bearers in Mayo and Sligo. The name is now common throughout Ireland and the diaspora.
Variants: Conaway · Conboy · McConway
Famous bearers of the name
- William Conway - Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh from 1963 to 1977.
- E. J. Conway - Biochemist and UCD professor, twice nominated for a Nobel Prize.
- Arthur W. Conway - Mathematical physicist, early expositor of relativity and President of UCD.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: O'Brien · Walsh · Kennedy · Quinn · Burke · McDonnell · McMahon · Boland