About

About surnames.ie

An independent reference to Irish family names, for people who want the real story behind a name rather than a souvenir.

Most surname websites recycle the same few unsourced paragraphs and sell you a “family crest”. surnames.ie takes a different approach. It starts from the census returns of 1901, 1911 and 1926, which record every person in Ireland, and builds a portrait of each name: where its bearers lived, how they made a living, which language they spoke and how large their families were. Alongside that sits the scholarship on what each name means and which families bore it, with footnotes so you can check every claim.

surnames.ie is a sister site of irishcensus.com, where you can search the individual census records and view the original household forms.

We are adding names steadily, starting with the most common. Suggestions and corrections are welcome: see the contact page.