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The O' REILLY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 11,224 2946 0.004 42
United States (1880 census) 301 14227 0.001 6
Change since 1880 +10923 +11281 +0.003 +36
Other Countries
Australia 55 23548 0 3
United Kingdom 700 6916 0.002 15
Top States for O' REILLY by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
New York 1,502 1116 0.008 79
California 1,095 2673 0.003 32
Massachusetts 871 948 0.014 137
Florida 815 2336 0.005 51
New Jersey 729 1128 0.009 87
Top States for O' REILLY by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Massachusetts 871 948 0.014 137
Rhode Island 112 1298 0.011 107
New Jersey 729 1128 0.009 87
Connecticut 284 1413 0.008 83
New Hampshire 98 1874 0.008 79

Notes

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

Classification and Origin of O' REILLY

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 O' REILLY 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 O' REILLY 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 O' REILLY in the USA

Classification Total Percent
White (Hispanic) 295 2.63
Black/African American 195 1.74
Mixed Race 178 1.59
Asian/Pacific 52 0.46
Native American/Alaskan 21 0.19
White (Caucasian) 10,483 93.4

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

Meaning of O' REILLY in historical publications

O'REILLY. The family claim descent "from Brian, the fourth" Milesian king pf Connaught. The name was derived frOm an ancestor called Ragallagh — by softened pronunciation Reilly — who lived at tlie commencement of the eleventh century. His grandson Targaille, prince of East Brefny, was the first who used the name of Ua Ragallagh or O'Reilly." B.L.G.

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 O' REILLY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as O' REILLY.

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.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.

Potential typos for O' REILLY

The following words are slight variants of O' REILLY that are likely to be possible typos or misspellings in written material.