This surname is derived from a geographical locality. I feel assured the name is local, and that it is a modification of Medcroft or Medcraft (v. Craft and Croft, and compare Calcraft and Calcroft), of which an instance still remains in the London Directory Mead and meadow as double forms still exist. Middle English mede, a grassfield, so called because mowed (Skeat). Metcalf and Turnbull were great Yorkshire names. I have seen them side by side in Yorkshire records of 500 years ago. Horace Smith still keeps them in company: 'Mr. Metcalf ran off on meeting a cow, With pale Mr. Turnbull behindnim.'

Willelmus Miducroft, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Ricardus de Meducroft, 1379: ibid.

Nicholas de Meducroft, Close Rolls, 7 Edward III. pt.

Nicholas de Meducroft, Lancashire 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

Miles Metkalff: Patent Roll. Henry VII.

James Medcalfe, 1570: Register of the University of Oxford.

Mark Meadcalfe, 1568: ibid.

It is a remarkable fact that I cannot find Metcalf in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of of 1379. But the Meducrofts are there. Probably the corruption had not yet taken place; compare Duncalf and Duncuft, i.e. Duncroft, also Crostkalf infra.

Agnes de Crostkalf, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

(English) Dweller at a Meadow- Croft [Old English mǽd + croft]

In the Welsh, medd signifies a vale, a meadow, and caf a cell, a chancel, a church, i. e., the church in the vale. The origin of the name, however, is given by tradition in this wise. In those days when bullfights were in vogue, in merry England, one of the enraged animals broke away from the combat, and was hotly pursued by horsemen. A certain John Strong happened to meet the bull on the top of a hill, and when attacked by the furious beast, he seized him in the nostrils with his left hand, and killed him. As he came to the foot of the hill, meeting several persons in the pursuit, he was inquired of whether he had met a bull; he replied he "Met a calf," and from this circumstance was called afterward John Metcalfe.