surnames.ie

Irish surname · 38th most common in 1911

Collins

In Ireland Collins usually stands for Ó Coileáin, 'descendant of Coileán' (a whelp or young hound), a Munster family who once ruled Uí Chonaill Gabra in west Limerick before most of them moved to west Cork. In England, Collins is a separate name from Colin, a pet form of Nicholas.

Irish Ó CoileáinIrish Ó CuileáinIrish Mac Coilín
1901 census
13,368
#38 · 30 per 10,000
1911 census
13,165
#38 · 30 per 10,000
1926 census
11,209
#32 · 38 per 10,000
Most numerous
Cork
Highest share: Cork

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic & English (merged) Mostly Gaelic Irish (Ó Coileáin and Ó Cuileáin, with some Mac Coilín in Ulster), merged with an unrelated English surname derived from Colin, a diminutive of Nicholas.[1][2][3][4]

Ó Coileáin
“descendant of Coileán”[1][5]
Woulfe's headword for the Limerick and west Cork family. Michael Collins was Mícheál Ó Coileáin in Irish.
Ó Cuileáin
“descendant of Cuileán”[2]
Woulfe treats it as a variant of Ó Coileáin. It was also borne by unrelated families in Galway, Cork, Tyrone and Tipperary, and gives Cullane and Cullen as well as Collins.
Mac Coilín
“son of Coilín”[3]
An Ulster name, common in Tyrconnell, Down and Antrim around 1600. Collins is one of many English forms Woulfe lists for it, alongside MacCullen, MacQuillan and Cullen.

The name is built on the personal name Coileán, usually explained as “a whelp, a young dog”. Woulfe glosses both Coileán and Cuileán as 'whelp'. Wikipedia also gives 'puppy', and links the related word cuilein with 'darling'.[1][2][4]

Pronunciation

Collins: KOL-inz

Place

Where the Collinss 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.

Donegal: 10.3 per 10,000 (173 people) Waterford: 26.7 per 10,000 (220 people) Dublin: 24.2 per 10,000 (1,160 people) Kilkenny: 15.3 per 10,000 (115 people) Carlow: 8.8 per 10,000 (32 people) Limerick: 84.6 per 10,000 (1,213 people) Louth: 26.7 per 10,000 (168 people) Tipperary: 25.6 per 10,000 (390 people) Roscommon: 21.1 per 10,000 (198 people) Meath: 34.8 per 10,000 (227 people) Wicklow: 13.5 per 10,000 (82 people) Cavan: 12.2 per 10,000 (111 people) Cork: 108.6 per 10,000 (4,270 people) Clare: 64.6 per 10,000 (675 people) Galway: 47.2 per 10,000 (861 people) Mayo: 17.3 per 10,000 (333 people) Sligo: 9.6 per 10,000 (76 people) Leitrim: 3.5 per 10,000 (22 people) Offaly: 16.5 per 10,000 (94 people) Laois: 7.3 per 10,000 (40 people) Kildare: 13.3 per 10,000 (89 people) Kerry: 43.9 per 10,000 (701 people) Monaghan: 6.6 per 10,000 (47 people) Wexford: 4.1 per 10,000 (42 people) Longford: 4.1 per 10,000 (18 people) Westmeath: 15 per 10,000 (90 people) Tyrone: 12.3 per 10,000 (175 people) Antrim: 14 per 10,000 (668 people) Armagh: 16.2 per 10,000 (194 people) Fermanagh: 20.6 per 10,000 (125 people) Londonderry: 16.6 per 10,000 (232 people) Down: 10.6 per 10,000 (324 people)
fewerup to 113 per 10,000

Share of each county's census population. 1926 covers the 26 counties of the Irish Free State only.

Highest concentration · 1911

Cork

109 per 10,000

4,270 Collinss · 3.62× the national share

Highest share, 1911

  1. Cork 109
  2. Limerick 85
  3. Clare 65
  4. Galway 47
  5. Kerry 44
  6. Meath 35
  7. Waterford 27
  8. Louth 27

Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.

County figures as a table
County190119111926Per 10k 1901Per 10k 1911Per 10k 1926
Antrim574668—1314—
Armagh217194—1716—
Carlow37323510910
Cavan991117710129
Clare776675662696570
Cork4,5014,2704,126112109113
Donegal217173177131012
Down378324—1311—
Dublin1,0681,1601,294242426
Fermanagh128125—2021—
Galway927861851484750
Kerry768701667464445
Kildare7189100121317
Kilkenny10611585141512
Laois524021974
Leitrim142217243
Limerick1,2011,2131,176828584
Londonderry207232—1417—
Longford19188442
Louth186168123292720
Mayo275333329141719
Meath186227260273542
Monaghan404757579
Offaly1149496191718
Roscommon217198214222126
Sligo6676618109
Tipperary394390387252628
Tyrone174175—1212—
Waterford159220188182724
Westmeath9090106151519
Wexford314222342
Wicklow768270131412

Local strongholds in 1911

District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where Collinss made up the largest share of the population. In Toormore, Co. Cork, about one resident in 10 was a Collins.

DEDCountyCollinssShare
ToormoreCork58 10.1%
DromtrasnaLimerick119 10.0%
Dromdaleague NorthCork51 9.9%
CashelCork42 9.5%
CloghpriorTipperary34 8.8%
Dromdaleague SouthCork64 8.4%
AbbeyfealeLimerick150 8.3%
WoodfortCork48 7.9%

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Collins lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

Ó Coileáin of Uí Chonaill Gabra

Uí Chonaill Gabra, now the baronies of Upper and Lower Connello; later west Cork · Limerick, Cork

A branch of the Uí Fidgenti, kin to the O'Donovans, who were lords of Uí Chonaill Gabra in west Limerick. Woulfe says most of the clan were driven out in 1178 and settled in west Cork, while a remnant held Claonghlas in south-west Limerick until the Fitzgeralds dispossessed them in the late 13th century. Burke likewise describes an O'Collins sept of Hy Conaill driven out by the Geraldines.[1][6][7][8]

Ó Cuileáin of Uí Maine

Uí Maine · Galway

Woulfe records a Galway family of Ó Cuileáin belonging to the Uí Maine, quite separate from the Munster Collinses.[2]

Ó Cuileáin of Corca Laoighdhe

Corca Laoighdhe, west Cork · Cork

A family of the Corca Laoighdhe, the old kingdom of west Cork. Woulfe stresses that they were a different stock from the Ó Coileáin of Uí Chonaill Gabra, who later came to live in the same district after leaving Limerick.[2][9]

Ó Cuileáin of Clogher

church lands of Clogher · Tyrone

Woulfe notes an Ulster family of the name who were erenaghs, hereditary stewards of church land, at Clogher. He also mentions families in Tipperary and possibly Clare and Sligo, without detail.[2]

English Collins families

various English counties

Collins is also a common English surname, which Wikipedia derives from Coll or Colin, pet forms of Nicholas. Burke lists many separate English armigerous Collins families, among them lines in Herefordshire, Kent, Devon and Cornwall, and some Irish bearers will descend from English settlers.[4][8]

The name over time

History

Lords of Uí Chonaill Gabra

The Irish Collinses trace their name to the Ó Coileáin, leading family of Uí Chonaill Gabra, a territory along the River Deel and Slieve Luachra in west Limerick that survives in the barony names Upper and Lower Connello. The name Connello itself recalls an ancestor, Conall Gabra. Uí Chonaill Gabra was part of the Uí Fidgenti, an early north Munster kingdom, and Woulfe says the Ó Coileáin were of the same stock as the O'Donovans. Wikipedia describes them as the most powerful sept of the Uí Fidgenti.[1][6][7]

Driven south to Cork

In 1178, according to the Annals of Inisfallen as summarised on Wikipedia, Domnall Mór O'Brien forced the Uí Chonaill and their neighbours to flee their lands. Woulfe dates the main expulsion to that year and says the bulk of the clan settled in west Cork. Other accounts place the final move later: Wikipedia says the O'Collins followed the O'Donovans some decades afterwards, retreating towards Cork under FitzGerald pressure in the mid-13th century. Woulfe adds that a branch held on at Claonghlas in south-west Limerick until the Fitzgeralds took it in the late 1200s.[6][1][7]

Several origins in one spelling

Not every Collins descends from Uí Chonaill Gabra. Woulfe treats Ó Cuileáin as a variant spelling and lists separate families of that name in Galway, where they belonged to the Uí Maine, in west Cork among the Corca Laoighdhe, and in Tyrone, where they were erenaghs of Clogher. In Ulster, Collins was also one of many English renderings of Mac Coilín. Woulfe nevertheless found that in Munster the Gaelic name was always made Collins in English, and that it was common both in the family's old Limerick territory and across the province.[2][3][1]

An English name too

Collins is also an English surname with no Gaelic connection. Wikipedia derives it from Coll or Colin, pet forms of the name Nicholas, and notes forms such as Collin, Collings and Collis. Burke's General Armory of 1884 records arms for numerous English Collins families, from Herefordshire and Kent to Devon and Cornwall, one of them granted in 1570. Some Irish Collinses may therefore descend from English settlers rather than from Ó Coileáin.[4][8]

Michael Collins and the Uí Chonaill Gabra

The best-known bearer of the name, Michael Collins, was born at Woodfield in west Cork in 1890, into a family that had farmed there as tenants for several generations. He became the IRA's Director of Intelligence, Minister for Finance and a negotiator of the 1921 Treaty, and was killed at Béal na Bláth in August 1922. Wikipedia notes that he believed his family came from the Uí Chonaill Gabra, which would make him a descendant of the Limerick Ó Coileáin who settled in west Cork.[5][6]

Places linked to the name

  • Connello Upper (Conallaigh Uachtaracha), Co. Limerick — With Connello Lower, the barony that preserves the name of Uí Chonaill Gabra, the Ó Coileáin homeland.[1][10]
  • Connello Lower (Conallaigh Íochtaracha), Co. Limerick — Northern half of the old Connello territory, ruled by the Ó Coileáin until their move to Cork.[7]
  • Woodfield, west Cork, Co. Cork — The farm where Michael Collins was born in 1890, held by his family for generations.[5]
  • Clogher, Co. Tyrone — Church where an Ó Cuileáin family were erenaghs.[2]

Everyday lives

The Collinss in the census

Who the Collinss were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

Collinss All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Collins bar

Religion, 1911

Catholic +17.8 points vs Ireland
Collinss 91.4%
All of Ireland 73.6%
Church of Ireland −7.8 points vs Ireland
Collinss 5.4%
All of Ireland 13.2%
Presbyterian −7.9 points vs Ireland
Collinss 2.2%
All of Ireland 10.1%
Methodist & other −2.1 points vs Ireland
Collinss 1.0%
All of Ireland 3.1%

Irish language

Spoke Irish, 1901 +9.6 points vs Ireland
Collinss 24.9%
All of Ireland 15.3%
Spoke Irish, 1911 +6.8 points vs Ireland
Collinss 20.3%
All of Ireland 13.5%
Spoke Irish, 1926 · 26 counties +1.7 points vs Ireland
Collinss 15.2%
All of Ireland 13.5%

62 Collinss spoke Irish only in 1901.

Reading & writing

Could read and write, 1901 · aged 15+ −1.1 points vs Ireland
Collinss 79.3%
All of Ireland 80.4%
Could read and write, 1911 · aged 15+ −0.5 points vs Ireland
Collinss 85.3%
All of Ireland 85.8%

Family life, 1911

Household size · 2,696 households about the same as Ireland
Collinss 4.88
All of Ireland 4.83
Children born per mother · women 45–59 higher than Ireland
Collinss 7.02
All of Ireland 6.46
Children still living about the same as Ireland
Collinss 79.9%
All of Ireland 79.8%

Commonest occupations

Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.

Farmer2,209
Farmer's son1,157
Farmer's daughter599
Agricultural labourer480
General labourer458
Farm servant441
Labourer378
Domestic servant271
House keeper259
Farm labourer247

Born outside Ireland

2.7% of Collinss in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.

England254
United States39
Scotland32
India11
Wales6
Canada2

Median age: 24 in 1901, 25 in 1911.

Given names

First names among the Collinss

Men and boys

  1. John3,006
  2. Patrick2,107
  3. Michael1,643
  4. James1,424
  5. Thomas1,172
  6. William873
  7. Daniel659
  8. Denis617
  9. Timothy491
  10. Jeremiah410

Women and girls

  1. Mary3,278
  2. Margaret1,241
  3. Bridget1,151
  4. Ellen1,086
  5. Catherine687
  6. Kate679
  7. Annie572
  8. Julia443
  9. Hannah441
  10. Anne378

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, Michael, James, Thomas; Mary, Margaret, Bridget, Ellen, Annie.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Spelling190119111926Records
Collins13,36813,16511,209Search

Related forms

  • O'Collins — The form keeping the O prefix, used by Burke for the Limerick sept.[8]
  • Collen, Collan, Collaine — Early English spellings of Ó Coileáin recorded by Woulfe.[1]
  • Cullane, Cullen, Quillan — Forms of Ó Cuileáin, which can also appear as Collins.[2]
  • MacCullen, MacQuillan — Ulster forms of Mac Coilín, another source of Collins.[3]
  • Collin, Collings, Collis — English variants listed by Wikipedia.[4]

Diaspora

The Collinss abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

SpellingPeopleUS rank
Collins329,77059th

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a Collins coat of arms?

Arms belonged to particular families, so there is no single Collins crest. For the Irish sept, Burke's General Armory records arms for O'Collins of Hy Conaill, Co. Limerick: on silver, two lions rampant facing each other, with a pelican as crest. Burke also lists many unrelated arms for English Collins families, which belong to those lines and not to the Irish name.[8]

Websites selling a single “Collins 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 Collins

  • Dominic Collins (1566–1602)
    Former soldier turned Jesuit lay brother, executed for his faith in 1602 and later beatified.
  • Charles Collins (c. 1680–1744)
    Irish painter best known for animal subjects and still lifes.
  • Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)
    English novelist, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone.
  • Jerome J. Collins (1841–1881)
    Irish-American journalist and meteorologist who founded Clan na Gael in the United States.
  • Patrick Collins (1844–1905)
    Lawyer and Democrat who served as a US congressman and as mayor of Boston.
  • Con Collins (1881–1937)
    Limerick-born Sinn Féin politician of the revolutionary period.
  • Michael Collins (1890–1922)
    Revolutionary leader, Treaty negotiator and head of the Provisional Government, killed at Béal na Bláth.
  • Michael Collins (1930–2021)
    American astronaut who piloted the Apollo 11 command module around the Moon.
  • Gerry Collins (born 1938)
    Fianna Fáil minister for justice and for foreign affairs.
  • Judy Collins (born 1939)
    American folk singer-songwriter with a career of nearly seven decades.
  • Phil Collins (born 1951)
    English drummer and singer with Genesis and a highly successful solo career.
  • Steve Collins (born 1964)
    Irish boxer who held the WBO middleweight world title from 1994 to 1995.

Questions

Questions about the Collins name

Is Collins an Irish surname?

Usually, yes. In Ireland it mainly represents Ó Coileáin, the name of a Munster family who ruled Uí Chonaill Gabra in west Limerick and later settled in west Cork. Ó Cuileáin and the Ulster name Mac Coilín were also anglicised Collins. There is a separate English surname Collins, from Colin, so a few Irish Collins families may have English roots.[1][2][3][4]

What is Collins in Irish?

The usual Irish form is Ó Coileáin, as in Mícheál Ó Coileáin, the Irish name of Michael Collins. Woulfe also records the variant Ó Cuileáin, and in Ulster the unrelated Mac Coilín sometimes became Collins. The Ulster name Mac Coilín was also sometimes rendered Collins, alongside more usual forms such as MacCullen and MacQuillan.[1][2][5][3]

What does the name Collins mean?

For the Irish name, Ó Coileáin means 'descendant of Coileán', and Woulfe glosses coileán as 'whelp', a young dog or cub. The English surname Collins means 'son of Colin', a pet form of Nicholas. The Gaelic and English names are unrelated, although they now look identical on paper.[1][4]

Is Collins Irish or English?

It can be either. Most Collinses in Munster descend from the Gaelic Ó Coileáin or Ó Cuileáin, and Woulfe found the Irish name was always made Collins there. In England, Collins developed independently from Colin, and Burke records many English Collins families with their own arms. Where a family lived is often the best clue to which origin applies.[1][4][8]

Where does the Collins name come from in Ireland?

The best-known family came from Uí Chonaill Gabra, now the Connello baronies of west Limerick. They lost those lands from the late 12th century, under pressure from the O'Briens and then the FitzGeralds, and most moved to west Cork, where the name is still strongly associated. Smaller, unrelated families of Ó Cuileáin lived in Galway, Tyrone and elsewhere.[1][6][2]

Is there a Collins family crest or coat of arms?

Not one shared by everyone named Collins. Burke's General Armory gives arms for the O'Collins sept of Hy Conaill in Co. Limerick, two lions rampant facing each other on silver, and separate arms for many English Collins families. Each coat belonged to a particular family line.[8]

Where in Ireland is the Collins surname most common?

In the 1911 census the largest numbers of Collinss lived in Cork (4,270), Limerick (1,213), Dublin (1,160). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Cork (109 per 10,000), Limerick (85 per 10,000), Clare (65 per 10,000).

How common was the Collins surname in Ireland?

13,165 people were recorded as Collins in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 38th most common surname. That is roughly 0.3% of the population, or 1 person in 333.

Looking for a Collins ancestor?

Search every Collins household in the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, with free images of the original forms.

Search records on irishcensus.com

Evidence

Sources

  1. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Coileáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  2. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Cuileáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  3. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Coilín, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  4. Wikipedia, Collins (surname) (2026)
  5. Wikipedia, Michael Collins (Irish leader) (2026)
  6. Wikipedia, Uí Fidgenti (2026). The article carries a 'needs more citations' notice.
  7. Wikipedia, Connello Lower (2026)
  8. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'O'Collins' and 'Collins'.
  9. Wikipedia, Corcu Loígde (2026)
  10. Wikipedia, Connello Upper (2026)
  11. 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.
  12. Irish forms cross-checked against Gaois surname data (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU).

How we compile these figures: methodology.