The surname Metcalf
An English occupational surname, carried by 23,946 people in the United States.
2 syllables Soundex M324
Origin
English origin
Possibly from Old English *metecealf (“meat calf”), a calf to be fattened up for eating. The use as a surname could have started off as a jocular nickname for an individual thought to be as "fat as a prize-calf"; or else in reference to the occupation involved in fattening up such a calf.
Metcalf is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.
One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 23,946 people named Metcalf in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 12,893 Americans. That is up 1.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 23,540.
Who is named Metcalf
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
87% of people named Metcalf identified as white (not Hispanic), 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.0% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 87%
- Black (not Hispanic) 7.8%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.0%
- Two or more races 1.9%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Famous Metcalfs
12 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Laurie MetcalfAmerican actress (born 1955)
- Dorothy M. Metcalf-LindenburgerAstronaut, born 1975
- Joel Hastings MetcalfAmerican astronomer (1866-1925)
- Willard MetcalfAmerican artist (1858-1925)
- Mark MetcalfAmerican actor, born 1946
- Harriet MetcalfAmerican rower, born 1958
- DK MetcalfAmerican football player (born 1997)
- Lee MetcalfAmerican politician (1911-1978)
- Victor H. MetcalfAmerican politician (1853-1936)
- Barbara D. MetcalfAmerican historian, born 1941
- Jesse H. MetcalfAmerican politician (1860–1942)
- Donald MetcalfAustralian medical researcher (1929–2014)
Notable Metcalfs come mostly from the United States (11) and Australia (1).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Variant spellings
Metcalf has the Soundex code M324, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M324.
Other English surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Metcalf come from?
- Possibly from Old English *metecealf (“meat calf”), a calf to be fattened up for eating. The use as a surname could have started off as a jocular nickname for an individual thought to be as "fat as a prize-calf"; or else in reference to the occupation involved in fattening up such a calf.
- How common is the surname Metcalf?
- 23,946 people in the United States had the surname Metcalf in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 12,893 Americans. It ranked 1,494th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Metcalf?
- In the 2010 Census, 87% of people named Metcalf identified as white (not Hispanic), and 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Metcalf?
- Laurie Metcalf, American actress (born 1955), followed by Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger.
- Where is the surname Metcalf most common?
- Wikidata records people named Metcalf in the United States and Australia.
- What type of surname is Metcalf?
- Metcalf is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
- Is the surname Metcalf getting more or less common?
- More common. 23,540 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 23,946 in 2010, up 1.7%.
- What are other spellings of Metcalf?
- Medcalf, Medcalfe, Metcalfe and Mitcalfe.