Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from any of several places called Callow, including one in Herefordshire which is named with Old English calu ‘bare’ in the sense ‘bare hill’, Callow near Hathersage and Callow near Wirksworth, both in Derbyshire, which are named with Old English cald ‘cold’ + hlāw ‘hill’, and Calow near Chesterfield, also in Derbyshire, which is named with Old English calu ‘bare’ + halh ‘nook of land’.
- English : nickname for a bald man, from Middle English calue, calewe ‘bald’ (Old English calu).
- Manx : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Caolaidhe, a patronymic from the personal name Caoladhe, a derivative of caol ‘slender’, ‘comely’.