The GILROY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	3,797	8053	0.001	14
United States (1880 census)	1,288	4402	0.003	26
Change since 1880	+2509	-3651	-0.002	-12
Other Countries
Australia	409	3858	0.003	25
United Kingdom	2,064	2879	0.004	45

Top States for GILROY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	499	3665	0.003	26
Pennsylvania	470	3084	0.004	38
California	253	9822	0.001	7
Florida	238	7617	0.001	15
New Jersey	226	4039	0.003	27
Top States for GILROY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Pennsylvania	470	3084	0.004	38
Maryland	191	2972	0.004	36
New Hampshire	44	3746	0.004	36
Rhode Island	33	4508	0.003	31
Massachusetts	187	4287	0.003	29

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called GILROY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called GILROY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called GILROY in New York than any other state, but you are more likely to find a GILROY by picking someone at random in Pennsylvania than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of GILROY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From name of parent

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the GILROY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the GILROY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of GILROY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	71	1.87
White (Hispanic)	71	1.87
Mixed Race	30	0.79
Asian/Pacific	25	0.66
Native American/Alaskan	25	0.66
White (Caucasian)	3,575	94.15

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the GILROY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of GILROY in historical publications

Gile-roimh, a running footman attendant on a Highland chieftain; from gille, a servant, and roimh, before, in respect of situation or place; or Gille-righ, the servant of the king.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

GILROY. GILRAY. Gael. Gille ruadh or rcy, i. e. "the red lad." The celebrated Highland freebooter of the XVI. cent., Gilderoy, derived his designation from this source. Arthur says, " Gillcroimh, a running footman attendant on a Highland chieftain ; or GiUc-rlgh, the servant of the king." Others make it cqui-alent to Fitz-PlOy — the son of a king. Thus do Gaelic etymologists ditier.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to GILROY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GILROY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.