Metcalf

The story

1. Old English · inherited from*metecealf“meat calf”
2. English todayMetcalf

Possibly from Old English *metecealf (“meat calf”), a calf to be fattened up for eating. The use as a surname could have started off as a jocular nickname for an individual thought to be as "fat as a prize-calf"; or else in reference to the occupation involved in fattening up such a calf.