What does a surname rank or estimated population for 1890 actually mean?
Both figures come from Matheson's analysis of the 1890 birth registers. The rank orders surnames by how many births were registered under each name that year, so rank one, Murphy, had the most registrations. The estimated population is Matheson's own estimate of how many people in Ireland bore the name around 1890, worked out from those birth figures. Neither figure is a head count of living people taken door to door, and neither says anything about where the name sits today. Matheson published ranks and estimates only for his hundred most numerous names. Names added in the later expansion of the dataset carry neither figure, and the blank is deliberate rather than a gap in the research.
Useful pages: The Irish surnames map · Trace your Irish roots · The 1926 Census guide · Coming home · Irish around the world · Plan your journey
Sources
- R. E. Matheson, Special Report on Surnames in Ireland; Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
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