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The O'DONOVAN surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 1,180 20800 0 4
United States (1880 census) 35 59244 0 1
Change since 1880 +1145 +38444 +N/A +3
Other Countries
Australia 2 236610 0 0
United Kingdom 186 17158 0 4
Top States for O'DONOVAN by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
California 153 13237 0.000 5
New York 130 11846 0.001 7
Massachusetts 128 5264 0.002 20
Florida 89 15702 0.001 6
Illinois 72 14851 0.001 6
Top States for O'DONOVAN by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Massachusetts 128 5264 0.002 20
Maine 15 7919 0.001 12
Vermont 7 10195 0.001 11
Maryland 57 8055 0.001 11
Connecticut 32 11814 0.001 9

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

Classification and Origin of O'DONOVAN

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'DONOVAN 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'DONOVAN 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'DONOVAN in the USA

Classification Total Percent
White (Hispanic) 56 4.75
Mixed Race 20 1.69
Asian/Pacific 6 0.51
White (Caucasian) 1,095 92.8
Black/African American Less than 100 Insignificant
Native American/Alaskan Less than 100 Insignificant

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

Meaning of O'DONOVAN in historical publications

DONOVAN or O'DONOVAN. This great Irish famil} spring from a chieftain of the X. cent., who was killed in 077, by the famous Brian Boru. By old writers the name is written Dondubhan, which signifies " brown-haired-eliief." O'Donovau in Irish Pen. Journ. p. 331.

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'DONOVAN

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

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'DONOVAN

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