O'Cawley is a surname in the English language.
According to John O'Hart, a 19th-century Irish genealogist, the surname is an Anglicised form of the Irish Ó Cadhla.
[1] The Irish Ó Cadhla originated as a patronym, meaning "descendant of Cadhla".
The masculine personal name Cadhla means "beautiful", "comely", "graceful".
[2] In the United States of America the surname is extremely uncommon, and did not rank in the 2000 United States Census.