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The 10 most popular Irish last names

Click links after each family to see complete clan story and photos

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY
,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, August 9, 2009, 8:33 AM
Updated Monday, August 10, 2009, 11:46 AM

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The 10 most popular Irish last names | IrishCentral




Read more: Ireland, Culture and Lifestyle, Irish Ancestry, Ua Niall, History, Irish History, World History
Coats of arms representing Irish clans
Coats of arms representing Irish clans

Irish and Irish-Americans alike tend to be immensely proud of their surnames.

Many a Irish family proudly declare their Irish roots by displaying the crest of their clan in their homes.

But which last names win in the battle of Irishness?

IrishCentral took a look at the list of the most common surnames in Ireland in order to come up with a top 10 list.

Smith and Murray are two of the most common, but one is of British origins and the other’s Scottish, so they didn’t make the cut.

Here, then, are the 10 most Irish last names:


1. Murphy  - the sea battlers

Murphys – you win the prize for most common and widespread name in Ireland, especially in County Cork.  

This surname, which means “sea battler,” translates to Gaelic as MacMurchadh (son of Murchadh) and O'Murchadh (descendent of Murchadh), a derivation of the first name of Murchadh or Murragh.

O'Murchadh families lived in Wexford, Roscommon and Cork, in which county it is now most common, with the MacMurchadhs of the Sligo and Tyrone area responsible for most of the Murphys in Ulster.

The name was first anglicized to MacMurphy and then to Murphy in the early 19th century.

READ THE WHOLE STORY OF THE MURPHY CLAN! CLICK HERE

2. Kelly – the bright-headed ones

Kelly comes second to Murphy as the most common surname in Ireland.

The Kellys are all over Ireland; the name originates from at around 10 different and unrelated ancient clans or septs. These include O'Kelly septs from Meath, Derry, Antrim, Laois, Sligo, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Galway and Roscommon.

O'Kelly comes from the Gaelic O Ceallaigh, meaning "descended from Ceallach," an Irish chieftan. “Ceallach” means war or contention. It is an ancient first name that is no longer used as a first name in Ireland. However, Kelly is a popular first name for women in the U.S.

READ THE WHOLE STORY OF THE KELLY CLAN! CLICK HERE

3. O'Sullivan – the hawkeyed ones

Kellys may have bright heads, but O’Sullivans have hawk-like eyes.

The O'Sullivans or Sullivans are one of the most populous of the Munster families. In Irish, O'Sullivan is O'Sileabhin, and there is no doubt that origin of the name comes from the word sil (eye), though whether it is to be taken as "one-eyed" or "hawkeyed" is in dispute among scholars.

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Most recent comments - See all comments

Report abuse
Posted by vapsmith on Dec 20, 2009, 06:39 PM EST
I would like to comment on the posting by Binasdad on November 9, 2009. My husband is a Smith and a Niall descendant (DNA testing). Would like to know about his family if he is interested.
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Posted by beachline on Nov 11, 2009, 04:40 PM EST
I see all of the previous comments have been deleted. So I ask you--how did you arrive at this list of "ten most popular names" ??? Did you actually count the number of people with these names, or simply go through a phone book and do an estimate??
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Posted by Binasdad on Nov 09, 2009, 01:27 PM EST
Not too happy about the Smiths being excluded. True, the name itself has English origins but it was assigned to people who were formerly called “Mac an Ghabhan”, meaning 'son of the smith'. The name originated in County Cavan where thousands of Smiths, including my father’s family, still live. Many of our ancestors were forced, to anglicize our name to Smith or Smythe. Some others have a less anglicized version, McGowan. It isn’t right that we should be excluded because of an injustice done to our ancestors. Besides, all the other names on the list are anglicized, ours just more radically so.






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