Language & meaning
Meaning & Irish forms
Gaelic Gaelic Irish: several unrelated septs called Ó Cearbhaill, the chief of them the O'Carrolls of Éile, all now anglicised Carroll or O'Carroll.[1][2]
The name is built on the personal name Cearbhall, usually explained as “uncertain: traditionally 'fierce or valorous in battle', perhaps originally 'crooked mouth'”. Woulfe calls Cearbhall a very common Irish personal name. Wikipedia reports the usual gloss 'fierce in battle', from Old Irish cerb, 'hacking', but suggests a likelier origin in cerr, 'crooked', with bél, 'mouth', or ball, 'limb'.[1][4][2]
Pronunciation
Carroll: KARR-əl
Place
Where the Carrolls lived
How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.
Share of each county's census population. 1926 covers the 26 counties of the Irish Free State only.
Highest concentration · 1901
Offaly
124 per 10,000
746 Carrolls · 3.68× the national share
Highest share, 1901
Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.
Highest concentration · 1911
Offaly
118 per 10,000
672 Carrolls · 3.59× the national share
Highest share, 1911
Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.
County figures as a table
| County | 1901 | 1911 | 1926 | Per 10k 1901 | Per 10k 1911 | Per 10k 1926 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antrim | 226 | 241 | — | 5 | 5 | — |
| Armagh | 144 | 156 | — | 12 | 13 | — |
| Carlow | 135 | 124 | 156 | 36 | 34 | 46 |
| Cavan | 345 | 326 | 324 | 35 | 36 | 39 |
| Clare | 254 | 220 | 206 | 23 | 21 | 22 |
| Cork | 1,447 | 1,360 | 1,342 | 36 | 35 | 37 |
| Donegal | 114 | 102 | 86 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Down | 157 | 176 | — | 5 | 6 | — |
| Dublin | 2,394 | 2,505 | 2,717 | 55 | 52 | 54 |
| Fermanagh | 122 | 121 | — | 19 | 20 | — |
| Galway | 347 | 347 | 331 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Kerry | 730 | 718 | 765 | 44 | 45 | 51 |
| Kildare | 314 | 296 | 282 | 51 | 44 | 49 |
| Kilkenny | 550 | 604 | 597 | 73 | 81 | 85 |
| Laois | 582 | 568 | 546 | 102 | 104 | 106 |
| Leitrim | 159 | 140 | 142 | 23 | 22 | 25 |
| Limerick | 1,032 | 910 | 887 | 70 | 64 | 64 |
| Londonderry | 18 | 18 | — | 1 | 1 | — |
| Longford | 68 | 75 | 71 | 15 | 17 | 18 |
| Louth | 670 | 631 | 626 | 103 | 100 | 100 |
| Mayo | 562 | 471 | 391 | 28 | 25 | 23 |
| Meath | 331 | 296 | 304 | 47 | 45 | 49 |
| Monaghan | 270 | 224 | 240 | 36 | 31 | 37 |
| Offaly | 746 | 672 | 539 | 124 | 118 | 103 |
| Roscommon | 326 | 337 | 378 | 32 | 36 | 45 |
| Sligo | 242 | 231 | 186 | 30 | 29 | 26 |
| Tipperary | 1,296 | 1,176 | 1,153 | 81 | 77 | 82 |
| Tyrone | 70 | 90 | — | 5 | 6 | — |
| Waterford | 242 | 277 | 255 | 28 | 34 | 33 |
| Westmeath | 283 | 284 | 289 | 46 | 47 | 51 |
| Wexford | 398 | 386 | 401 | 38 | 38 | 42 |
| Wicklow | 308 | 338 | 265 | 51 | 56 | 46 |
Local strongholds in 1911
District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where Carrolls made up the largest share of the population. In Ballynorig, Co. Kerry, about one resident in 9 was a Carroll.
| DED | County | Carrolls | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballynorig | Kerry | 80 | 10.7% |
| Clonfert West | Cork | 49 | 10.3% |
| Ballysakeery | Mayo | 56 | 7.0% |
| Derrinboy | Offaly | 27 | 6.9% |
| Ardagh | Kerry | 73 | 6.6% |
| Ballycondra | Kilkenny | 20 | 6.4% |
| Colmanswell | Limerick | 40 | 6.4% |
| Astee | Kerry | 58 | 6.0% |
Origins
Septs & territories
Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Carroll lineages described in the sources.
A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.
Ó Cearbhaill of Éile (Ely O'Carroll)
Éile; later the baronies of Clonlisk and Ballybritt · Offaly, Tipperary
Named from Cearbhall, lord of Éile, who fought at Clontarf in 1014, and claiming descent from Cian, son of Ailill Aulom of Munster. Woulfe says their chief once ruled all Éile, but after the Normans arrived the southern baronies of Ikerrin and Eliogarty owed tribute to the Earls of Ormond, leaving the family with Ely O'Carroll alone. They ruled from Birr, and Woulfe found the family very numerous.[1][6][2][7]
Ó Cearbhaill of Oriel
Airgíalla (Oriel) · Monaghan, Louth
Of the same stock as the MacMahons and Maguires, and chiefs of Oriel until about the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, when they vanish from the record. Woulfe notes that the name was still numerous in Monaghan and Louth.[1][2]
Ó Cearbhaill of Loch Léin
the district around Killarney · Kerry
Early chiefs of the Eoghanacht of Loch Léin until the O'Donoghues displaced them. Wikipedia mentions two O'Carroll septs in Kerry.[1][2]
Ó Cearbhaill of Ossory
Osraige (Ossory) · Kilkenny, Carlow
Woulfe derives them from Cearbhall, a renowned 9th-century ruler of Ossory; Wikipedia places this sept in the Carlow and Kilkenny area.[1][2]
Ó Cearbhaill of Tara
Tara, in Brega · Meath
A branch of the southern Uí Néill that Woulfe says disappeared from history at an early date.[1]
Ó Cearbhaill of Calry
Calry, in Sligo and Leitrim · Sligo, Leitrim
A Connacht family. Woulfe rejects the claim that the MacBradys of Cavan were an offshoot of it.[1]
The name over time
History
Many Cearbhalls, many Carrolls
Cearbhall was a popular name in early Ireland, so several unrelated families took the surname Ó Cearbhaill from different ancestors. Woulfe lists six: in Éile, in Oriel, around Killarney, in Ossory, at Tara and in Calry. Only the first stayed powerful into modern times. The Oriel family, kin to the MacMahons and Maguires, had faded by the 12th century, though the name stayed common in Monaghan and Louth. Most Carrolls today descend from one of these septs, and Woulfe notes that some come instead from the Ulster family of Mac Cearbhaill.[1][5][2]
Kings of Éile
Éile was a petty kingdom covering south Offaly and part of north Tipperary. Its people traced their line to Cian, one of the younger sons of Ailill Aulom, making them kin of the Eóganachta, though Wikipedia notes they may originally have been of Laigin stock. By the 12th century the kingdom had split, with Éile Uí Chearbhaill, Ely O'Carroll, in the north. A Cearbhall, king of Éile, fought alongside Brian Boru at Clontarf in 1014, and the O'Carroll kings had the shrine of the Book of Dimma, the Roscrea gospel book, decorated.[6][2][1]
Birr, Leap and the Tudor submission
From the 14th to the 17th century the O'Carrolls ruled Ely O'Carroll from a castle at Birr, and their vassals the O'Bannons held Leap Castle near Roscrea. The Earl of Kildare attacked Leap in 1513 and 1516. After the death of Mulrooney O'Carroll in 1532 the family split in a violent succession feud, remembered in the tradition of Leap's 'Bloody Chapel'. Wikipedia dates the end of O'Carroll rule to 1552, when the chief surrendered his lordship to the Crown and received it back on English terms. In 1620 Birr Castle was granted to Sir Laurence Parsons.[7][8][2]
From Ely to Maryland
The best-known Carroll emigrants went to Maryland. Charles Carroll the Settler, born in 1661 into a Catholic family that had lost much of its land in the wars of the 1640s, became a lawyer and planter there and built an estate of nearly 50,000 acres. His grandson Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. Their kinsmen Daniel Carroll, a signer of the Constitution, and his brother John Carroll, first Catholic bishop in the United States, were also of this family. In 2000 Ely O'Carroll was twinned with Baltimore to mark the connection.[9][10][2][6]
Poets, musicians and the Ulster MacCarrolls
Music runs through the name. Maol Ruanaidh Cam Ó Cearbhaill, a celebrated harper and tympanist, was killed in the Braganstown massacre in 1329. In Ulster, Woulfe describes the Mac Cearbhaill family as famous musicians, and records that the lands of a Gillekeaghe M'Carroll at Ballym'Carroll were escheated in 1594, with another family of that name in Laois. Woulfe lists Carroll among the English forms of Mac Cearbhaill, so some Carrolls descend from it, although MacCarroll is usually treated as a separate surname.[11][5][4]
Places linked to the name
- Birr Castle (Caisleán Bhiorra), Co. Offaly — Site of the O'Carroll seat from which Ely O'Carroll was ruled from the 14th to the 17th century.[7][1]
- Leap Castle (Léim Uí Bhanáin), Co. Offaly — Tower near Roscrea built by the O'Bannons, vassals of the O'Carrolls, and scene of the family's 16th-century feuds.[8]
- Clonlisk and Ballybritt, Co. Offaly — Baronies that made up Ely O'Carroll, transferred from Tipperary to King's County in 1606.[1][6]
- Roscrea, Co. Tipperary — Monastery of St Crónán in Éile, whose Book of Dimma had its shrine made for the O'Carroll kings.[6]
- Killarney (Loch Léin), Co. Kerry — District of the early Ó Cearbhaill chiefs of the Eoghanacht of Loch Léin.[1]
Everyday lives
The Carrolls in the census
Who the Carrolls were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.
Carrolls All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Carroll bar
Religion, 1911
Irish language
40 Carrolls spoke Irish only in 1901.
Reading & writing
Family life, 1911
Commonest occupations
Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.
| Farmer | 2,412 |
| Farmer's son | 1,113 |
| Farmer's daughter | 675 |
| General labourer | 651 |
| Agricultural labourer | 602 |
| Labourer | 461 |
| Farm servant | 448 |
| House keeper | 349 |
| Farm labourer | 343 |
| Domestic servant | 313 |
Born outside Ireland
1.1% of Carrolls in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.
| England | 100 |
| Scotland | 29 |
| United States | 16 |
| India | 11 |
| Canada | 2 |
| Wales | 1 |
Median age: 24 in 1901, 26 in 1911.
Given names
First names among the Carrolls
Men and boys
- John3,178
- Patrick2,561
- James2,014
- Michael1,812
- Thomas1,760
- William1,198
- Joseph557
- Peter438
- Daniel420
- Martin392
Women and girls
- Mary3,714
- Bridget1,726
- Margaret1,402
- Ellen967
- Catherine886
- Annie772
- Kate757
- Anne555
- Elizabeth545
- Julia483
All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, James, Michael, Thomas; Mary, Bridget, Margaret, Annie, Ellen.
Spellings
Spellings
This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.
| Spelling | 1901 | 1911 | 1926 | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carroll | 14,105 | 13,668 | 12,431 | Search |
| O'Carroll | 428 | 569 | 958 | Search |
| Carrol | 349 | 183 | 90 | Search |
Related forms
- O'Carroll — The form keeping the O, used by the chiefs of Ely and many modern families.[1][2]
- Carrol, Caroll, Carrell — Spelling variants of the same name.[4][2]
- Carvill, Carwell — Older English forms of Ó Cearbhaill recorded by Woulfe, closer to the Irish pronunciation.[1][2]
- MacCarroll, MacCarvill — From Mac Cearbhaill, a distinct surname, though some of its bearers became plain Carroll.[5][4]
Diaspora
The Carrolls abroad
Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:
| Spelling | People | US rank |
|---|---|---|
| Carroll | 134,317 | 215th |
| O'Carroll | 685 | 33343rd |
| Carrol | 2,307 | 13236th |
Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).
Heraldry
Is there a Carroll coat of arms?
Arms belonged to particular families, so there is no single Carroll crest. Burke records for O'Carroll, Lord of Ely, two lions rampant facing each other and holding up a sword, gold lions on black for Sir William O'Carroll, knighted in 1567, and red on silver for his son Sir Maolroona. He gives the Maryland and Galway branches a crest of a hawk rising from an oak stump, and the motto 'In fide et in bello forte' ('Strong in faith and in war') for the O'Carrolls of Ardagh, Co. Galway.[12]
Websites selling a single “Carroll family crest” are selling a design, not an inheritance. Arms in Ireland belonged to individuals and their heirs, and the Chief Herald of Ireland still grants arms that way today.
People
Notable people named Carroll
- Maol Ruanaidh Cam Ó Cearbhaill (died 1329) Celebrated harper and tympanist, killed in the Braganstown massacre.
- Charles Carroll the Settler (1661–1720) Irish-born lawyer and planter who founded the Carroll family fortune in Maryland.
- Daniel Carroll (1730–1796) Maryland politician and Founding Father who signed the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.
- John Carroll (1735–1815) First Catholic bishop in the United States and Archbishop of Baltimore.
- Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737–1832) Only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and its last surviving signer.
- Anna Ella Carroll (1815–1894) American political activist and pamphleteer who wrote against slavery.
- Richard O'Carroll (1876–1916) Dublin trade union leader and Labour Party founder, fatally wounded during the Easter Rising.
- Paul Vincent Carroll (1900–1968) Louth-born dramatist who wrote over 60 plays and settled in Glasgow.
- Mella Carroll (1934–2006) First woman to serve as a judge of the Irish High Court.
- Brendan O'Carroll (born 1955) Dublin comedian and writer, creator of Agnes Brown in Mrs. Brown's Boys.
Questions
Questions about the Carroll name
Is Carroll an Irish surname?
Yes. Carroll is the English form of the Gaelic Ó Cearbhaill, 'descendant of Cearbhall'. Woulfe counts six separate families of the name, in Offaly and Tipperary, Monaghan and Louth, Kerry, Ossory, Meath and Sligo-Leitrim. The best known were the O'Carrolls of Ely, lords of a kingdom centred on Birr until the 16th century.[1][2]
What is Carroll in Irish?
Ó Cearbhaill, or in the modern standard spelling given by the Gaois surname database, Ó Cearúil. Both mean 'descendant of Cearbhall'. The former President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, born Carroll O'Daly, shows the personal name Carroll in its Irish form.[1][3][13]
How do you pronounce Carroll?
It is said 'KARR-əl', with the stress on the first syllable. Wiktionary gives /ˈkæɹəl/. O'Carroll is said the same way with 'oh' in front, and the spellings Carrol and Caroll do not change the sound.[14]
What does the name Carroll mean?
It means 'descendant of Cearbhall'. The personal name is often explained as 'fierce' or 'valorous in battle', but Wikipedia suggests a more likely early meaning of 'crooked mouth' or 'crooked limb'. Like many old Irish names, its original sense is uncertain.[4][2]
Is there a Carroll family crest or coat of arms?
There is no single Carroll crest. Burke records arms for O'Carroll, Lord of Ely, with two lions holding a sword, in different colours for different chiefs, and for branches in Maryland and Galway a hawk rising from an oak stump. The motto 'In fide et in bello forte' is recorded for the O'Carrolls of Ardagh, Co. Galway.[12]
Were the Carrolls of Maryland Irish?
Yes. Charles Carroll the Settler was born in Ireland in 1661 to a Catholic family that had lost land in the 1640s, and emigrated to Maryland. Wikipedia describes the Maryland Carrolls as descendants of the O'Carroll princes of Éile. His grandson Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed the Declaration of Independence.[9][6][10]
Are Carroll and McCarroll the same name?
Usually not. McCarroll is Mac Cearbhaill, 'son of Cearbhall', a separate family that Woulfe describes as famous Ulster musicians, with another branch in Laois. Woulfe does record that some of them became plain Carroll, so the two can overlap.[5][4]
Where in Ireland is the Carroll surname most common?
In the 1911 census the largest numbers of Carrolls lived in Dublin (2,505), Cork (1,360), Tipperary (1,176). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Offaly (118 per 10,000), Laois (104 per 10,000), Louth (100 per 10,000).
How common was the Carroll surname in Ireland?
14,420 people were recorded as Carroll or O'Carroll or Carrol in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 27th most common surname. That is roughly 0.3% of the population, or 1 person in 305.
Looking for a Carroll ancestor?
Search every Carroll household in the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, with free images of the original forms.
Evidence
Sources
- Patrick Woulfe, Ó Cearbhaill, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
- Wikipedia, O'Carroll (2026)
- Gaois research group, Dublin City University, Sloinnte (Irish surnames corpus), cluster 'Cearúl' (2022)
- Wikipedia, Carroll (surname) (2026)
- Patrick Woulfe, Mac Cearbhaill, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
- Wikipedia, Éile (2026)
- Wikipedia, Birr Castle (2026)
- Wikipedia, Leap Castle (2026)
- Wikipedia, Charles Carroll the Settler (2026)
- Wikipedia, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (2026)
- Wikipedia, Maol Ruanaidh Cam Ó Cearbhaill (2026)
- Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'O'Carroll' (Lords of Ely; Carrollstown, Maryland; Ardagh, co. Galway).
- Wikipedia, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (2026)
- Wiktionary, Carroll (2026)
- Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.
How we compile these figures: methodology.