A Comparison Of Irish Surnames In The United States With Those Of Eire

Abstract

This paper compares contemporary frequency distributions of Irish Surnames in Eire (2001) and the United States (US) (1997), about one hundred years after bulk of Irish emigration to the US, in order to measure changes, if any, in form and frequency of these surnames.

The Eire Data (ED) source is taken from the Eire 2002 Electoral Roll, where the graph of population against surnames is shown to be typical. The US Data (USD) source is Hanks’ Dictionary of American Family Names (DAFN). Results of a first comparison of these two sources prompted removal from the USD of all Irish surnames that also have UK roots, including 33 of the 100 most frequent surnames in the Eire data. A second comparison shows that many US surnames of Irish origin are not present in Eire: these are variants of common Irish surnames, and were then merged with the etymological Irish form. The remaining 67 of the most frequent 100 surnames from ED were then compared with USD. All except one are of roughly comparable frequency order albeit with some changes to their spelling form. It is concluded that the US Irish surnames clearly reflect their heritage although some are have never been found in Eire.