Metcalf

Variation – Matcalfe
Racial Origin – Welsh
Source – A locality

There is a tradition regarding the origin of this family name of the sort that is often met with an attempt to explain it by a fanciful story woven around the apparent elements of which the name is supposed to be compounded.

This tradition has it that a certain strong man, having had an encounter with a bull, in which he finally conquered, explained laconically that he had “met a calf.”

Actually the family name of Metcalf is one of those which have been adopted as indicative of the localities in which the first bearers of the surnames lived and its origin is traced to Wales.

The original Metcalfs were dwellers in or near a spot called anciently “the valley of the church” in the Cymric tongue.

In the Welsh the word “medd” indicates a valley, more specifically a little vale, and “caf” means variously a cell, chancel or little church. If the ancient form had been adhered to in the development of the name, rather than an unconscious approximation of English words in the the Anglicized form, the name today might more properly be spelled “Medcalf.”

But though of Welsh origin, it is more than likely that the name’s principal development was in England.  Certainly it would never have been used by a person still living in the locality of that name, unless he were the owner or overlord of the section.