Holloway surname meaning

Holloway is an English topographic surname for someone who lived beside or came from a hollow way, a sunken or enclosed road. Old English and Middle English elements for “hollow” and “way” underlie the description, and places called Holloway or Holway supplied additional families. Medieval spellings such as Holeweye show how the compound changed in records. The name therefore points to a kind of landscape rather than one single village or lineage. Holway and Hollway are useful variants, especially when reading older parish documents. The catalog classifies Holloway as place with high confidence because the topographic and habitational explanations reinforce one another.