Callis
A surname usually taken from Calais, the French port once held by England.
The #8,496 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 79,635 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Callis is generally explained as a surname from Calais, the French town in Picardy. Medieval records show spellings such as Calais, Calice, Challis, and Callis, reflecting the way the place-name was adapted in English speech and spelling. The name therefore likely meant someone who came from Calais or was identified with it.
History
The English occupation of Calais from the 14th century to 1558 made the place well known in England, which helped produce surnames based on it. Later English records show a variety of forms, including Challis and Callis, and some of these were treated as linked variants by 19th-century surname writers. The modern surname is uncommon but still found in Britain and the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower explicitly glossed Callis as coming from the French town of Calais, which the English held for much of the later Middle Ages.
From the historical record
“GALLEYS. See Callis, below. CALLIS. The French town, Calais, possessed by the English from temp. Ed- ward III. to Queen Mar}'. CAMAYLE. One family of this name bear for their arms, three lozenges, and another, ihi-QQ fudls. These seem to refer to the vjasclecl armour for the neck, from which the name was probably…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom