Find out how popular the last name Donahue is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Donahue.

Donahue, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Donahue surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Donahue in America

Donahue is the 1112th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Donahue surname appeared 31,563 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 11 people would have the surname Donahue.

We can also compare 2010 data for Donahue to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Donahue

The surname Donahue is an Anglicized form of the ancient Irish Gaelic name O'Donnchadha. It originated in County Cork, Ireland in the 12th century. The name stems from the Gaelic word "Donnchadh" which means "brown warrior".

Donahue is one of the few Irish surnames that remained relatively unchanged when transliterated into English. This suggests the name was well-established before the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. The prefix "O'" indicates the name is from an Irish clan or family group.

One of the earliest recorded references to the name dates back to 1356 in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient Irish chronicle. It mentions a Donnchadh O'Donnchadha who served as a judge in County Cork. The name also appears in the Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.

The Donahue surname can be traced back to the ancient kingdom of Duhallow in northwest County Cork. This region was ruled by the O'Donnchadha clan for centuries before the Norman conquest. The name is still most prevalent in County Cork, particularly in the towns of Kanturk and Mallow.

Notable people with the surname Donahue include Thelma Donahue (1904-1959), an American silent film actress, and Phil Donahue (born 1935), the pioneering American talk show host. Other examples are Miles Donahue (1884-1973), an American judge, and John Donahue (1905-1970), an American baseball player.

Ken Donahue (1928-2001) was a Canadian lawyer and judge who served on the Supreme Court of Ontario. He played a key role in several high-profile cases involving civil liberties and indigenous rights in Canada during the 1970s and 1980s.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Donahue

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Donahue.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Donahue was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Donahue has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Donahue was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Donahue, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!