Family Names in Britain and Ireland

[Anglo-Celtic]

That's interesting because nearly all of them have an indigenous Irish origin bar Murray and Smith could be English but also Irish.

I think that "Smith" came from "McGowan" in a lot of instances. Don't tell Bill about "Murray", though.

[Anglo-Celtic]

That's a lot! I have 3, or 2.5, that I know of. Doyle (on my English side!), Quinn, and O'Connor, minus the O'

I have "Doyle" too, linked to my "McDonnell" gallowglass line. I think that my forebears settled in Celtic ghettoes in the mountains.

[Creoda]

That's a lot! I have 3, or 2.5, that I know of. Doyle (on my English side!), Quinn, and O'Connor, minus the O'

Actually I have Smith as well, but it's on my English side some way back (mid 19th century).

[Grace O'Malley]

English and Scottish surnames in Ireland from the 1659 Census. Some areas have no data.

The so-called ‘1659 Census’ provides a unique vista of Ireland at one of the most pivotal points in Irish political and cultural history. (3) Apart from providing a detailed, almost island-wide picture of settlement, ethnic groups and population distributions in the mid-seventeenth century, it also facilitates both a retrospective reconstruction of ethnic patterns of settlement created in earlier centuries as well as providing a crucial benchmark against which to measure later cultural transformations in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Inspired by William Petty's obsessive concern with the ratio of Irish to English in each barony and county, a most crucial component of the ‘Census’ is the listing of the principal family names at the end of each baronial entry. Unfortunately the returns from counties Cavan, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone and Wicklow as well as parts of Cork and Meath are missing. Otherwise the ‘Census’ records for every other county and barony the specific numerical importance of each family name classified as ‘Irish’, from the most numerous down to the family names which were enumerated at least five times in the poll-tax barony lists. It is unlikely that any other European country has a seventeenth-century record of such geographical richness in relation to the number and importance of such a range of family surnames. Whatever about its uniqueness, this baronial listing of principal Irish family names has provided an essential anchor for this Atlas project.

https://research.ucc.ie/doi/atlas

There is obviously a lot of information available. Areas that are blank is due to no data.

[Daco Celtic]

I have 7 of those names (could have more) in my tree. I'm too paranoid to say which ones, though.

Prove it. Let's see the tree Mr. Irish.

[Anglo-Celtic]

Actually I have Smith as well, but it's on my English side some way back (mid 19th century).

My Smith came from Dublin, and she married a man from London when they sailed to America. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman based the movie on them. (jk)

[Grace O'Malley]

I think that "Smith" came from "McGowan" in a lot of instances. Don't tell Bill about "Murray", though.

Yes a lot of Smith's came from McGowan but some do have an English origin. Murray can be of Irish or Scottish origin. We'll claim Bill.

Murray is an extremely common surname throughout Ireland, being among the top twenty most numerous. It can be of Scottish or Irish origin. The Scottish origins of the name applied to people from the region in Scotland, called Moray, which means "settlement by the sea" - the Irish Muireb means 'seafarer'. The earliest recorded ancestor of this family was Hugh Freskin, a Flemish nobleman, who had crossed the North Sea in 1130 and was granted lands along the Moray Firth coastline. His descendants took their name from his property.The probable Irish origin of the surname is that it derives from the ancient Gaelic name "O'Muireadhaigh", meaning descendant of Muireadhach; or Mac Giolla Mhuire "descendant of the servant of the Virgin Mary". Some Irish Murrays were of Scottish origin, particularly those of Ulster stock. The native Irish Murrays date from an earlier time, most likely from the ancient Siol Muiredhaighs who were mainly in northern Roscommon. Their clan seat was at Moate Park in Ballymurray, but this was confiscated by the English in the late 17th century. Other places connected with the Murray surname include Cloonmurray and Kilmurray. Descendants of the Roscommon O'Muireadhaigh sept anglicised their name to Murray in the 17th century. Murry, Morrow and McIlmurray are other anglicised variants.Apart from the Roscommon clan, a separate family of the same name are recorded in the barony of Carbery in Cork. MacMuireachaidh, anglicised as Murray and MacMorrow, is found in County Leitrim and north County Down. County Wicklow was also a Murray region, but these were Scots Catholics who had fled Scotland after the defeat at Culloden.

https://irelandroots.com/murray.htm

[Anglo-Celtic]

Prove it. Let's see the tree Mr. Irish.

Did you miss the "paranoid" part? I don't want some Sherlock Holmes genealogical stalker to show up at my front door.

[Anglo-Celtic]

Yes a lot of Smith's came from McGowan but some do have an English origin. Murray can be of Irish or Scottish origin. We'll claim Bill.

That raises a question. Will he claim you, though? ;-)

[Grace O'Malley]

That raises a question. Will he claim you, though? ;-)

I think so. Bill is very proud of his Irish origins. He was surprised to find out Graham Norton is Irish.