surnames.ie

Irish surname · 70th most common in 1911

Cunningham

Cunningham has two roots in Ireland. It is a Scottish surname from Cunninghame in Ayrshire, brought to Ulster by planters in the 17th century. It also became the usual English form of the Gaelic Ó Cuinneagáin, Mac Cuinneagáin and Ó Connagáin, names built on diminutives of Conn and found throughout Ireland.

Irish Ó CuinneagáinIrish Mac CuinneagáinIrish Ó Connagáin
1901 census
8,714
#74 · 20 per 10,000
1911 census
8,988
#70 · 21 per 10,000
1926 census
6,032
#85 · 20 per 10,000
Most numerous
Down
Highest share: Louth

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Scottish & Gaelic (merged) A Scottish place-name surname from Cunninghame in Ayrshire, merged in Ireland with several Gaelic names derived from the personal name Conn.[1][2][3][4]

Ó Cuinneagáin
“descendant of Cuinneagán”[3][5]
Woulfe calls it common all over Ireland and lists Cunningham among its English forms. Gaois gives it as a standard modern Irish form for Cunningham.
Mac Cuinneagáin
“son of Cuinneagán”[6][7][8][5]
Woulfe found that Ó Cuinneagáin was used as an alternative name for it almost everywhere. Mac Connagáin and Mac Coinneagáin are variants he also anglicises Cunningham.
Ó Connagáin
“descendant of Connagán”[4][9][5]
The name of two Connacht septs. Woulfe says it was by his day almost always rendered Cunningham in English. Ó Connacháin is a variant of it.

The name is built on the personal name Cuinneagán, Connagán, usually explained as “diminutives of Conn”. Woulfe explains Conn as 'head', sense or intelligence, and also as a freeman. This applies only to the Gaelic Cunninghams; the Scottish name comes from a place in Ayrshire.[3][4][10]

Pronunciation

Cunningham: KUN-ing-um

Place

Where the Cunninghams 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: 34.6 per 10,000 (583 people) Waterford: 27.9 per 10,000 (230 people) Dublin: 14.5 per 10,000 (698 people) Kilkenny: 7.6 per 10,000 (57 people) Carlow: 3 per 10,000 (11 people) Limerick: 9.9 per 10,000 (142 people) Louth: 46.5 per 10,000 (293 people) Tipperary: 13.6 per 10,000 (208 people) Roscommon: 44.4 per 10,000 (417 people) Meath: 12.9 per 10,000 (84 people) Wicklow: 12.3 per 10,000 (75 people) Cavan: 8.2 per 10,000 (75 people) Cork: 10.7 per 10,000 (422 people) Clare: 24.5 per 10,000 (256 people) Galway: 40.3 per 10,000 (735 people) Mayo: 18.8 per 10,000 (361 people) Sligo: 34.1 per 10,000 (270 people) Leitrim: 21.3 per 10,000 (134 people) Offaly: 18.1 per 10,000 (103 people) Laois: 16.4 per 10,000 (90 people) Kildare: 11.7 per 10,000 (78 people) Kerry: 3.9 per 10,000 (63 people) Monaghan: 29.9 per 10,000 (214 people) Wexford: 1 per 10,000 (10 people) Longford: 30.8 per 10,000 (135 people) Westmeath: 35.1 per 10,000 (211 people) Tyrone: 19 per 10,000 (271 people) Antrim: 18.5 per 10,000 (883 people) Armagh: 21.2 per 10,000 (254 people) Fermanagh: 5.8 per 10,000 (35 people) Londonderry: 20 per 10,000 (280 people) Down: 42.8 per 10,000 (1,310 people)
fewerup to 57 per 10,000

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

Highest concentration · 1911

Louth

47 per 10,000

293 Cunninghams · 2.27× the national share

Highest share, 1911

  1. Louth 47
  2. Roscommon 44
  3. Down 43
  4. Galway 40
  5. Westmeath 35
  6. Donegal 35
  7. Sligo 34
  8. Longford 31

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
Antrim766883—1719—
Armagh296254—2421—
Carlow411401312
Cavan69751097813
Clare245256237222525
Cork409422414101111
Donegal587583543343536
Down1,3331,310—4643—
Dublin586698783131516
Fermanagh4735—76—
Galway703735742374044
Kerry546340343
Kildare567810791219
Kilkenny465751687
Laois879067151613
Leitrim139134102202118
Limerick150142167101012
Londonderry301280—2120—
Longford137135149293138
Louth267293354414757
Mayo339361363171921
Meath808496111315
Monaghan285214236383036
Offaly9610389161817
Roscommon420417364424444
Sligo241270223303431
Tipperary191208216121415
Tyrone272271—1819—
Waterford222230271252835
Westmeath205211203333536
Wexford91011111
Wicklow727555121210

Local strongholds in 1911

District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where Cunninghams made up the largest share of the population. In Carnagh, Co. Roscommon, about one resident in 11 was a Cunningham.

DEDCountyCunninghamsShare
CarnaghRoscommon58 9.3%
KilthomasGalway24 7.4%
GlencolumbkilleDonegal102 6.8%
Mourne ParkDown105 6.7%
GreencastleDown93 5.7%
CrownaradDonegal23 5.7%
CrossboyneMayo24 5.5%
DrumraneyWestmeath21 5.3%

Origins

Septs & territories

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

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

Cunningham of Kilmaurs (Clan Cunningham)

Cunninghame, north Ayrshire

The Scottish family that took its name from the district of Cunninghame. Its traditional founder, Warnebald, received the manor of Cunningham between 1135 and 1140, and the family was established at Kilmaurs by the late 13th century. Its chiefs became Lords Kilmaurs and, from 1488, Earls of Glencairn; the earldom has been dormant since 1796.[11][12]

Cunninghams of the Plantation of Ulster

chiefly Co. Donegal · Donegal

Members of Clan Cunningham took part in the Plantation of Ulster as undertakers. Sir James Cunningham, son-in-law of an Earl of Glencairn, was granted five thousand acres in Donegal. Another planter line descended from Alexander Cunningham, Dean of Raphoe, and later spelt the name Conyngham.[11][13]

Ó Connagáin of Uí Fiachrach

Magh Gamhnach (Moygownagh), Tirawley · Mayo

A branch of the Uí Fiachrach seated in the parish of Moygawnagh. Woulfe places the parish in Co. Sligo, but Wikipedia locates Moygownagh in the barony of Tyrawley, Co. Mayo.[4][14]

Ó Connagáin of Uí Maine

Uí Maine · Galway

A Galway family of Uí Maine, which Woulfe says shared its ancestry with the O'Maddens. He gives no separate territory.[4]

The name over time

History

A name from Ayrshire

The Scottish surname comes from Cunninghame, the northern of the three old districts of Ayrshire, which lay along the River Irvine. Nobody is sure what the place-name means. The ending is Old English hām, 'home' or 'village', and the first part may be Old English cyning, 'king', or Gaelic coineanach, 'rabbit'. The Scottish Gaelic name of the district is Coineagan. Wikipedia calls Cunningham a surname of Scottish origin and directs readers to the clan that took its name from the district.[2][15][1]

Clan Cunningham and the Earls of Glencairn

Clan tradition traces the family to Warnebald, who was granted the manor of Cunningham in the late 1130s, and by the end of the 13th century they were firmly settled at Kilmaurs. They backed Robert the Bruce in the wars of independence. A Cunningham was made Lord Kilmaurs in 1462, and in 1488 James III created Alexander Cunningham Earl of Glencairn, only for both to be killed at Sauchieburn weeks later. The family's long feud with the Montgomeries over the bailieship of Cunninghame lasted into the 17th century.[11][12]

To Ulster with the Plantation

The Cunninghams were among the Scottish undertakers who took part in the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century. Sir James Cunningham, who had married a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, received five thousand acres in Co. Donegal. The Donegal village of Manorcunningham, Mainéar Uí Chuinneagáin in Irish, stands on land that belonged to Magheramore before the Plantation. Another Donegal family descended from the Very Rev. Alexander Cunningham, Dean of Raphoe; his descendants used the spelling Conyngham and became Barons, Earls and finally Marquesses Conyngham of Mount Charles.[11][16][13]

Gaelic Cunninghams

Many Irish Cunninghams have no Scottish ancestry at all. Woulfe lists Cunningham as an English form of Ó Cuinneagáin and Mac Cuinneagáin, both based on Cuinneagán, a diminutive of the personal name Conn. He considered these names common across Ireland and found that the Ó and Mac forms were used almost interchangeably. Related names such as Mac Connagáin and Mac Coinneagáin were written M'Konningham in older records, showing how early the Gaelic names were being assimilated to the familiar Scottish surname.[3][6][7][8]

The Ó Connagáin septs of Connacht

Woulfe describes two septs called Ó Connagáin. One belonged to the Uí Fiachrach and lived in the parish of Moygawnagh, which he places in Sligo but which Wikipedia locates in Tyrawley, Co. Mayo. The other was a Uí Maine family in Galway, of the same stock as the O'Maddens. By the late 1500s it had spread well beyond Connacht, turning up in Munster counties such as Cork, Kerry, Clare and Limerick, in Offaly and Kildare, and as far north as Monaghan. In Woulfe's time it had become Cunningham almost everywhere, occasionally Conyngham.[4][14]

Places linked to the name

  • Cunninghame (Coineagan (Scottish Gaelic)), Co. Ayrshire, Scotland — The district in north Ayrshire from which the Scottish surname is taken.[2]
  • Kilmaurs, Co. Ayrshire, Scotland — Seat of the Cunningham chiefs, later Earls of Glencairn, from the 13th century.[11]
  • Manorcunningham (Mainéar Uí Chuinneagáin), Co. Donegal — Village whose name records a Plantation-era Cunningham manor.[16]
  • Mount Charles, Co. Donegal — Seat that gave its name to the Conyngham peerage titles of the Dean of Raphoe's descendants.[13]
  • Moygownagh (Maigh Ghamhnach), Co. Mayo — Parish of the Uí Fiachrach Ó Connagáin sept.[4][14]

Everyday lives

The Cunninghams in the census

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

Cunninghams All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Cunningham bar

Religion, 1911

Catholic +5.7 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 79.3%
All of Ireland 73.6%
Church of Ireland −5.1 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 8.1%
All of Ireland 13.2%
Presbyterian about the same as Ireland
Cunninghams 10.3%
All of Ireland 10.1%
Methodist & other −0.8 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 2.3%
All of Ireland 3.1%

Irish language

Spoke Irish, 1901 +2.6 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 17.9%
All of Ireland 15.3%
Spoke Irish, 1911 +2.9 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 16.4%
All of Ireland 13.5%
Spoke Irish, 1926 · 26 counties +3.4 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 16.9%
All of Ireland 13.5%

64 Cunninghams spoke Irish only in 1901.

Reading & writing

Could read and write, 1901 · aged 15+ −2.3 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 78.1%
All of Ireland 80.4%
Could read and write, 1911 · aged 15+ −1.0 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 84.8%
All of Ireland 85.8%

Family life, 1911

Household size · 1,883 households lower than Ireland
Cunninghams 4.76
All of Ireland 4.83
Children born per mother · women 45–59 lower than Ireland
Cunninghams 6.35
All of Ireland 6.46
Children still living +2.6 points vs Ireland
Cunninghams 82.4%
All of Ireland 79.8%

Commonest occupations

Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.

Farmer1,857
Farmer's son808
Farmer's daughter392
General labourer267
Farm servant225
Labourer220
Agricultural labourer205
House keeper175
Seamstress172
Farm labourer159

Born outside Ireland

3.5% of Cunninghams in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.

England200
Scotland79
United States21
Wales4
Canada1
Australia & NZ1

Median age: 24 in 1901, 25 in 1911.

Given names

First names among the Cunninghams

Men and boys

  1. John1,628
  2. Patrick1,253
  3. James1,211
  4. Michael913
  5. Thomas834
  6. William510
  7. Joseph298
  8. Peter222
  9. Edward211
  10. Robert192

Women and girls

  1. Mary1,887
  2. Bridget872
  3. Margaret625
  4. Catherine469
  5. Ellen464
  6. Annie421
  7. Kate337
  8. Elizabeth304
  9. Sarah291
  10. Anne286

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.

Spelling190119111926Records
Cunningham8,7148,9886,032Search

Related forms

  • Cunninghame, Cuninghame — Spellings used by many Scottish branches in Burke's General Armory, matching the name of the Ayrshire district.[17][2]
  • Conyngham — Spelling adopted by the Donegal family descended from the Dean of Raphoe; Woulfe also records it as an occasional English form of Ó Connagáin.[13][4]
  • Cunnigan, Kinnegan, Kinnighan — Other English forms of Ó Cuinneagáin and Mac Cuinneagáin listed by Woulfe.[3][6]
  • O'Cunnegan — An alternative English form recorded by Gaois.[5]
  • Connigan, Conaghan — From Ó Connagáin and its variant Ó Connacháin, both now usually Cunningham.[4][9]

Diaspora

The Cunninghams abroad

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

SpellingPeopleUS rank
Cunningham135,718211th

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

Heraldry

Is there a Cunningham coat of arms?

Arms belong to particular families, and there is no single Cunningham crest. Burke records for Cuninghame of Kilmaurs, Earl of Glencairn, a black shakefork (a Y-shaped pall) on silver, with a unicorn's head crest, two rabbits as supporters and the motto 'Over fork over'. Wikipedia reports a legend linking the shakefork and motto to an ancestor hiding King Malcolm under hay, while noting other explanations. Burke also records arms exemplified in 1826 to George Gun of Riversdale, Co. Kerry, on his taking the name Cuninghame.[17][11]

Websites selling a single “Cunningham 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 Cunningham

  • Alexander Cunningham, 5th Earl of Glencairn (c. 1515–1574)
    Scottish nobleman and Protestant reformer prominent in the Scottish Reformation.
  • Waddell Cunningham (c. 1729–1797)
    Belfast merchant, transatlantic trader and Dominica slave-holder, prominent in Georgian Belfast.
  • Allan Cunningham (1784–1842)
    Scottish poet and author whose work Sir Walter Scott supported.
  • Patrick Cunningham (1878–1960)
    Irish Nationalist Party MP for Fermanagh and Tyrone.
  • Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope (1883–1963)
    Dublin-born admiral who commanded the Mediterranean Fleet during the Second World War.
  • Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976)
    American photographer and member of the sharp-focus Group f/64.
  • Alan Cunningham (1887–1983)
    Dublin-born British general who defeated Italian forces in East Africa in 1941.
  • Merce Cunningham (1919–2009)
    American dancer and choreographer at the forefront of modern dance for over fifty years.
  • Larry Cunningham (1938–2012)
    Irish country singer and one of the leading figures of the showband era.
  • Billy Cunningham (born 1943)
    American basketball player and coach, nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.
  • Liam Cunningham (born 1961)
    Dublin actor known for playing Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones.
  • Kenny Cunningham (born 1971)
    Defender who played international football for the Republic of Ireland until 2005.

Questions

Questions about the Cunningham name

Is Cunningham an Irish or Scottish name?

Both. As a surname it began in Scotland, from the district of Cunninghame in Ayrshire, and Scottish Cunninghams settled in Ulster during the 17th-century Plantation. In Ireland the same spelling was also adopted by families called Ó Cuinneagáin, Mac Cuinneagáin and Ó Connagáin, who were Gaelic Irish and found in every province.[1][2][11][3][4]

What is Cunningham in Irish?

For Gaelic Irish families the usual forms are Ó Cuinneagáin or Mac Cuinneagáin, which Woulfe says were interchangeable; Gaois also accepts Ó Connagáin. Manorcunningham in Donegal is Mainéar Uí Chuinneagáin in Irish. The Scottish Gaelic name of the Ayrshire district is Coineagan.[5][6][16][2]

What does the name Cunningham mean?

For the Scottish name, the meaning of the place-name Cunninghame is uncertain. Its ending is Old English for 'home' or 'village', and its first part may mean 'king' or, from Gaelic, 'rabbit'. For Irish Cunninghams, the Gaelic names derive from little forms of Conn, which Woulfe explains as 'head' or sense.[2][15][3][10]

How do you pronounce Cunningham?

It is said 'KUN-ing-um', with the stress on the first syllable and the final 'h' silent. Wiktionary gives the British pronunciation as /ˈkʌnɪŋəm/.[15]

Is there a Cunningham clan motto or coat of arms?

Burke gives the Earls of Glencairn, chiefs of the Scottish clan, a black shakefork on silver and the motto 'Over fork over', which several Cunninghame branches also used. Wikipedia reports a legend that the device recalls an ancestor hiding King Malcolm under hay, a story it treats as tradition. These arms belonged to particular families, not to everyone named Cunningham.[17][11]

Are Cunningham and Conyngham the same name?

Often they are. The Conyngham family of Mount Charles in Donegal descended from Alexander Cunningham, Dean of Raphoe, of a family of Scottish descent, and used the older spelling. Woulfe also notes that the Gaelic Ó Connagáin was sometimes written Conyngham, though Cunningham was far more usual.[13][4]

Where in Ireland is the Cunningham surname most common?

In the 1911 census the largest numbers of Cunninghams lived in Down (1,310), Antrim (883), Galway (735). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Louth (47 per 10,000), Roscommon (44 per 10,000), Down (43 per 10,000).

How common was the Cunningham surname in Ireland?

8,988 people were recorded as Cunningham in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 70th most common surname. That is roughly 0.2% of the population, or 1 person in 488.

Looking for a Cunningham ancestor?

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

Search records on irishcensus.com

Evidence

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, Cunningham (2026)
  2. Wikipedia, Cunninghame (2026)
  3. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Cuinneagáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  4. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Connagáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  5. Gaois, Dublin City University, Sloinnte: Irish surnames database (cluster 'Cuinneagán') (2022)
  6. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Cuinneagáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  7. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Connagáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  8. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Coinneagáin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  9. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Connacháin, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  10. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Cuinn, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923). Cited for the meaning of the personal name Conn.
  11. Wikipedia, Clan Cunningham (2026)
  12. Wikipedia, Earl of Glencairn (2026)
  13. Wikipedia, Marquess Conyngham (2026)
  14. Wikipedia, Moygownagh (2026)
  15. Wiktionary, Cunningham (2026)
  16. Wikipedia, Manorcunningham (2026)
  17. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'Cuninghame' (Kilmaurs, Earl of Glencairn, and branches) and 'Gun-Cuninghame'.
  18. 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.