Surnames in Ireland

A helpful resource in locating families in Ireland is Robert Matheson's Surnames in Ireland.  Published in 1909, the report makes use of the 1890 Births Index to count and locate surnames throughout the country.  Two tables published in this report are particularly interesting: One Hundred of the Principal Surnames in Ireland and Surnames in Ireland having Five Entries and upwards in the Birth Indexes of 1890.  Below, I combine these tables and modify them to show the most common Irish surnames in our family tree.  My modification changes the population estimates to reflect the population in about 1840, since our Irish ancestors emigrated between about 1825 and 1841.  [Note 1: Between 1841 and 1891, the population of Ireland dropped by about 50%.  50%!  The potato famine and emigration depleted the Irish population enormously.  Even today, the population of Ireland is less than it was in 1841.  The loss of population was not the same in all counties (Tipperary dropped 60% and Cork dropped 49%, for example), so my correction of simply doubling the population is not entirely accurate, but it should be quite a bit more accurate than using population numbers from 1890.]  [Note 2: You may notice that some of the population estimates don't follow the top 100 ranking.  I lumped some name variations together that slightly changed some relative rankings.  It's not important.]

Connaught is western Ireland (counties Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim and Galway); Munster is southwestern Ireland (counties Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Cork and Waterford); Leinster is eastern Ireland (counties Longford, Westmeath, Meath, Louth, Dublin, Kildare, Kings/Offaly, Queens/Leix, Wicklow, Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wexford); and Ulster is northern Ireland (counties Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Cavan, Armagh and Down).

In the table below, I have included the 10 most common names and added the most common Irish names from our family tree.

Surname	My estimated population in ca .1840	Top 100	1890 births					Principal counties
			Ireland	Leinster	Munster	Ulster	Connaught
Murphy	126,000	1	1386	476	611	189	110	Throughout Ireland, but greatest numbers in Cork, Dublin, and Wexford.
Kelly	114,000	2	1251	438	215	267	331	Throughout Ireland, but greatest numbers in Dublin, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, and Cork.
Sullivan	89,000	3	975	61	875	15	24	Throughout Munster, but greatest numbers in Cork and Kerry.
Walsh	85,000	4	932	476	611	189	110	Throughout Ireland, but greatest numbers in Cork, Mayo, Waterford, Galway, Dublin, and Wexford.
Smith	68,000	5	753	232	62	412	47	Antrim, Cavan, and Dublin.
O'Brien	69,000	6	764	216	414	73	61	Throughout Munster, and Dublin, Cavan, and Galway.
Byrne	67,000	7	734	583	52	53	46	Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Louth, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford, Donegal, Galway, Mayo & Roscommon.
Ryan	65,000	8	715	180	473	13	49	Tipperary by far, but also Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford, Clare & Galway.
Connor	63,500	9	698	160	336	81	121	Connor (432): Kerry, Dublin, Mayo, Cork, also Roscommon, Galway, Antrim, Londonderry. O'Connor (266): Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Dublin, Clare, Galway.
O'Neill	64,500	10	709	226	190	254	39	O'Neill (407): Throughout Ireland, but 50% in Dublin, Antrim, Cork, and Tyrone. Neill (244): Antrim, Cork, Kerry, Carlow, Dublin, Wexford. McNeill (58): Antrim & Londonderry.
Campbell	32,000	31	349	39	8	279	23	Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Londonderry, Donegal.
Casey	23,000	59	254	61	134	17	42	Cork, Kerry, Dublin, Limerick.
Donnelly	22,000	65	240	64	19	135	22	Antrim, Tyrone, Armagh, Dublin.
Hogan	17,500	91	193	59	115	5	14	Tipperary, Dublin, Limerick, Clare, & Cork.
Gorman	15,000		164	60	61	33	10	Gorman: Antrim, Dublin, & Tipperary. O'Gorman: Clare.
Dooley	5,500		60	33	12	5	10	Dublin & King's
Enright	4,500		49	4	43	-	2	21 in Limerick, 11 in Kerry, 8 in Cork, 3 in Clare.
McClintock	2,300		25	2	-	23	-	Antrim & Londonderry.
Cummings	1,800		20	4	2	12	2	Antrim.  Many more Cummins, in Dublin, Cork, & Tipperary.
Pyne	1000		11	-	10	1	-	7 in Cork, 3 in Clare.
Cussen	800		9	1	7	-	1	3 in Cork, 2 in Limerick