This article looks at how common Doyle is as a last name in Ireland and the United States from the 19th century to the present day.
You’ll learn the meaning and origins of the Doyle surname while exploring some notable and famous people that held it.
I use census records, emigration lists, and military archives to uncover fascinating patterns. If you’re studying your genealogy, check out my sources at the end of the post so you can do your own research.
How Common Is Doyle As A Surname In Ireland?
The Irish government doesn’t publish detailed surname statistics for recent years. The best that they give us is the ten most common surnames of babies born in the previous year. Doyle
Thankfully, an Irish genealogist named Seán Murphy studied the names in national phone books published in the 1990s. His estimates aren’t as accurate as a census, but they are still a good way to get an estimate of numbers.
Doyle was ranked 13 in the top one hundred names in this decade with a total of 26,100 entries.
This graphic shows how it ranks compared to the 1st, 33rd, 66th, and 100th entries in the survey:
Doyle In The Early 1900s
The only complete Irish censuses that are available to the general public are those from the years 1901 and 1911. They offer two detailed snapshots of the population.
Some records exist from earlier censuses, but most of the documents are lost to history. So, we’ll focus on the turn of the century.
I used online archives to calculate the total numbers by surname. I consider these estimates due to some percentage of transcription errors. So, I’ve rounded the numbers to the nearest fifty.
There were 20,500 residents named Doyle on the island in 1911.
Ten years earlier, Doyle had about 20,500 residents in the 1901 census.
Population Estimates In The 1890s
A study of Irish surnames was conducted in 1890 by the head of the Civil Registrations Office. It was published as a “Special Report on Surnames In Ireland.”
The survey estimated that there were about 23,000 people named Doyle in the country.
Emigration To America After The Irish Famine
The Irish diaspora is large and widespread with a significant number of people emigrating to other parts of the globe. The destinations traditionally have been England, the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Emigrants were driven by various factors like political unrest, poverty, and food scarcity.
The largest wave of emigration to the United States occurred during the 19th century. The peak was in response to the Great Irish Famine, which took place between 1845 and 1852. A plant disease devastated the main food and income crop for much of the population.
I reviewed the Doyle name in the shipping passenger lists arriving in New York during this period. The departures were from both Ireland and England.
This picture shows how the numbers rose and fell in the years after the famine:
How Common Is Doyle As A Last Name In The U.S.?
Based on the 2010 U.S. census, the name Doyle ranks about 441 among Irish names in America with 74,458 bearers.
Although the 2010 census has exact numbers and rankings, the rank I assign here is my estimate. If you’re curious about how I got there, here’s a brief explanation…
Estimating Rank In The United States
Historically, some Irish families with Gaelic surnames took English-sounding names as translations under the influence of colonization.
As these names also have English origins, they will have been brought to the United States by both British and Irish immigrants. Because the census doesn’t ask about specific European origin (e.g. England vs Ireland), it’s impossible to identify the proportion with Irish heritage.
I reviewed the census to identify which names are predominantly Irish in origin. In order to estimate the relative rankings of “Irish” names, I’ve mostly excluded surnames that have varying origins.
Doyle In Historic Times
In a country as young as the United States, tracking the popularity of a surname over time can be fascinating. This reflects other demographic shifts across the country in addition to immigration. Higher child mortality rates and longer life expectancy are just two factors.
The historic census records have been transcribed and digitized. I used online archives to run counts of surname populations.
But the totals can’t be exactly accurate due to transcription errors. So, I’ve rounded the numbers to the nearest 50 in the graph below.
This picture shows the numbers every twenty years from 1860 to 1940:
These are the numbers in the graph:
- 1860: 12,450
- 1880: 24,450
- 1900: 34,050
- 1920: 40,400
- 1940: 46,850
Doyle In World War II
During World War Two, approximately 8.3 million men and women joined the ranks of the United States Army. Many were of Irish descent. Some had even been born in Ireland and emigrated.
There were registration records for 2,684 soldiers named Doyle who enlisted between 1938 and 1946.
There were 32 who were born in Ireland.
Doyle Surname: Meaning And Origin
Doyle comes from the Gaelic surname “Ó Dubhghaill”, which means “descendant of Dubhghall”.
The personal name Dubhghall derives from two words. “Dubh” means the color “black” while “gall” refers to a foreigner or stranger.
You can consider the full name to be akin to “dark foreigner”. It was likely used by the Irish to refer to the Vikings from what is now Denmark.
Famous Or Historic People Named Doyle
Here are some notable people with the family name:
- Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930): this Doyle was the famous creator of Sherlock Holmes. His mother was Irish, and his father was born in England of Irish descent.
- A.E. Doyle (1877-1928): Albert Ernest was a prominent architect. His works include the Pacific Building, the Bank of California, and the Benson Bubblers fountains in Portland.
- Kirby Doyle (1932-2003): a novelist and poet who was part of a group known as the San Francisco Renaissance poets in the 1950s. He influenced the later beat poets like Jack Kerouac.
Sources
External Research
The Ireland 1990s estimates are from Seán J. Murphy’s research paper.
The population estimates of 1890 are based on the “Special Report on Surnames in Ireland“, published in 1909.
The population figures for the 2010 U.S. Census come from a file provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Internal Research
Some of the population numbers are based on my own research and calculations using online archives. I’ve rounded those numbers to the nearest 50 to account for transcription errors and other technical issues with online databases of this type.
The Irish census estimates for 1901 and 1911 are my calculations based on the Irish National Archives
I plotted the emigration figures from 1845 to 1854 based on calculations from the archives of the New York Passenger Lists (1820-1957).