CALLENDER
Callender is a surname of considerable antiquity that finds its roots in several linguistic traditions including French, Latin and Scottish. Its earliest known appearance is recorded in the year 1248 as Alwyn de Calyntyr, witnessed in a grant by Maldoueny, Earl of Lennox, during the reign of King Alexander the Eleventh of Scotland.
The name is principally understood as an occupational designation. In medieval times a calender was the device by which cloth was smoothed and finished; a worker who operated such a machine came to be called a calandrier in Old French, a term derived from the Latin calendarius. As a result, the surname Callender – and its variants such as Calendar, Calender and Callander – originally denoted a person whose trade was the finishing of cloth.
There is also a locational element to the surname. Two places in central Scotland, near Falkirk and near Perth, bear the name Callander. While the etymology of these place names is uncertain, the surname may have arisen from a person originating in either of these localities. This dual origin is reflected in the range of spellings that have persisted to the present day.
In some accounts the surname is linked further back to Gaelic. The Gaelic term Calan-dearg means “pink hill”, with calan translating as “slope” or “hill” and dearg meaning “red”. Those bearing the name may have been associated with a pink‑coloured hill or with a settlement near such a landmark, especially in the regions of Dumfrieshire and Ayrshire where the Callender family was prominent in the 13th century.
Notable early documentary evidence includes the 1311 Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London, in which a Bartholomew le Calendrer is mentioned. Later parish registers provide further details: the 1600 marriage of Elizabeth Kallender to Nicholas Jones at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, and the 1604 christening of Margaret, daughter of Paul Callender, at St. Margaret's, Westminster.
A traditional family crest is preserved in heraldic records. The shield is black, adorned in the chief with three gold mullets, and the crest consists of two elephants’ proboscises, endorsed per fesse with red and gold. These symbols have survived as a visual reminder of the family's heritage.
In more recent times the surname has spread beyond the British Isles. According to the United States Census of 2020 there were more than 4,000 people with the surname Callender, the largest concentrations occurring in Louisiana, Nevada, Georgia, Texas and Arkansas. The diaspora has also established substantial communities in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and South Africa, reflecting the mobility of families bearing the name from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries.
The diversity of spellings – including Calender, Calendar, Callendar, Calland, Collander and others – illustrates the fluid nature of surname orthography over the centuries. While it may be a common surname in English‑speaking countries, it remains relatively uncommon in the wider world.
Typical given names associated with the Callender surname
Male
- Andrew
- David
- James
- John
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Catriona
- Cherie
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Jean
- Joan
- Josephine
- Julie
- Laura
- Lisa
- Margaret
- Mary
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Callender in...
Braille
⠉⠁⠇⠇⠑⠝⠙⠑⠗
Morse
-.-..-.-...-...-.-....-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,735 people named Callender in the UK. That makes it roughly the 4,737th most common surname in Britain. Around 27 in a million people in Britain are named Callender.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Callender
- Clarence Callender - Sprinter
- Beverley Lanita Callender - Athlete
- Sheila Callender - Physician and haematologist (1914 to 2004)
- Jack Callender - Football player (1923 to 2001)
- David Callender - Rower
- Norman Callender - Football player (1924 to 1)
- Geoffrey Callender - Naval historian (1875 to 1946)
- John Callender - Football player (1903 to 1980)
- Billy Callender - Football player (1903 to 1932)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.