A variant of Conway, from a Welsh place and surname name associated with the River Conwy.
Konway is a phonetic variant of Conway, a name with dual geographic and linguistic roots in the Celtic world. The most prominent source is the Welsh River Conwy (also spelled Conway), whose name likely derives from the Brittonic element meaning "holy water" or possibly relates to the word for reeds or hounds depending on the scholarly interpretation. The river and its historic walled town of Conwy in North Wales, with its magnificent Edwardian castle, have made the name a geographic landmark of medieval British history.
Separately, Conway exists as an Anglicization of the Irish surname Ó Conbhuidhe, meaning "descendant of the yellow hound" — an evocative image from a tradition that prized the hunting hound as a symbol of nobility and valor. As a personal name, Conway was used in nineteenth and early twentieth century America, most often as a surname repurposed into a given name in the tradition of honoring family lineage. The country singer Conway Twitty — born Harold Jenkins, who took his stage name from two towns — gave the name a distinctly American, working-class warmth that it carried through the latter half of the twentieth century.
The Konway spelling is a modern invention, swapping the C for a K to give the name a sharper, more distinctive visual profile — a common practice in contemporary name culture that signals individuality without abandoning familiar sound. Parents choosing Konway often appreciate the name's rugged, outdoor quality and its Celtic underpinnings, while the alternate spelling marks it as a fresh choice rather than a heritage revival.