What is the most common Irish surname in America?
Murphy. In the 2010 United States census, 308,417 people carried the name, making it the most common distinctively Irish surname in the country and the 64th most common surname overall. Kelly follows at 267,394 and Sullivan at 220,990. Murphy was also the most common surname in Ireland itself at the end of the nineteenth century, strongest in Cork and Wexford, so its American lead is the emigration story in miniature: the name that left most is the name that landed most. On this site's surname map you can see where the name sat in Ireland in 1890, county by county, and what it means: a sea warrior, from the Irish Ó Murchadha.
Useful pages: Irish in USA · The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · Coming home · Irish around the world
Sources
- US Census Bureau: surname files from the 2010 Census, census.gov
- R. E. Matheson, Special Report on Surnames in Ireland; Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
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