An Irish, Welsh and Scottish surname, Conaway comes from the Gaelic term ‘condmach’. Spelling variations for Conaway include O’Conway, McConway, Conway, Convey and Conboy. Early Conaway families lived in Donegal and Connacht in Ireland. In England most lived in the northern regions around Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire counties in Scotland had the greater Conaway populations. In the 1600s and early 1700s, several Conaway families resettled in the Virginia and Maryland colonies. By the 1880s they lived mostly in Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Into the 20th century the Conaway families also settled in Kansas, California, Oklahoma, Iowa and Alabama. Famous: John Wesley Conaway (a Union Civil War soldier who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor), Jeffrey Charles Conaway (movie film and television actor) and Cristi Conaway (actress and fashion designer).