Distribution

The name Callenius is a relatively rare name. In Germany, it ranks 113,000th, in Argentina 98,000th, and in the USA 220,000th. [https://forebears.io].

Variations

However, it also occurs in language variants, such as Calenius (very common in Finland), Colenius, or Galenius. The name Källenius may also be a variant.

Where the name comes from?

According to publicprofiler, the surname originates from Germany — as previously suspected. It likely originated during the Renaissance humanism period. This era was fond of antiquity, and so it was fashionable to have a Latinized name. The original was then simply Latinized. The literature distinguishes two types:

1. Created by transformation and adding foreign endings. For example, Dietrich became Deius, Heinrich became Henrici, Froben (from given names) became Frobenius, Krämer became Cremerius, Müller became Myllius, Nolte became Noltenius.
2. Created by translation: Bauer to Agricola, Becker to Pistorius, Fischer to Piscatorius, Fuchs to Vulpius, Schneider to Sartorius.

Sometimes the naming was very imaginative. For example, Hüssgen, meaning “little house,” was interpreted as “hausschein” and translated as Oekolompadius. Many Latinized names disappeared. Some remained, such as Sutorius = Schuster (shoemaker), Praetorius = Vogt (bailiff), Albinus = Weiß (white), Lupus = Wolfr (wolf), or even Callenius.