McGuirk last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of McGuirk

An Irish surname derived from the Gaelic surname Mac Giric meaning "son of Giric".

McGuirk, 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 McGuirk surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of McGuirk in America

McGuirk is the 15533rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The McGuirk surname appeared 1,884 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname McGuirk.

We can also compare 2010 data for McGuirk 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.

20102000Change (%)
Rank155331344014.45%
Count1,8842,077-9.75%
Proportion per 100k0.640.77-18.44%

The history of the last name McGuirk

The surname McGuirk is of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic Mac Guibhir, meaning "son of Goibhir" or "son of the leper". The name originated in the early medieval period in Ireland, likely between the 8th and 10th centuries.

The McGuirk surname is most closely associated with County Mayo in the west of Ireland, where the clan was historically based. However, variations of the name, such as McGurk and McGirk, can also be found in other parts of Ireland, particularly in Ulster and Leinster.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history, where a man named Goffraidh Mac Guibhir is mentioned in an entry from the year 1161. This suggests that the name was in use in Ireland by the 12th century.

In the 16th century, during the Plantation of Ulster, many Irish families, including the McGuirks, were displaced from their ancestral lands. This led to the dispersal of the name across different parts of Ireland and beyond.

Notable individuals with the McGuirk surname throughout history include:

  1. John McGuirk (c. 1600s), an Irish Catholic landowner from County Mayo who was involved in the Confederate Wars of the 1640s.
  2. James McGuirk (1834-1896), an Irish-American politician and lawyer who served as the 20th Mayor of Syracuse, New York.
  3. Constance McGuirk (1898-1981), an American playwright and screenwriter who wrote for several Broadway productions and Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s.
  4. Thomas McGuirk (1924-1993), an American Catholic bishop who served as the Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee from 1979 to 1993.
  5. Michael McGuirk (born 1959), an Australian radio presenter and comedian, best known for his work on the Triple M network.

The McGuirk surname has a rich history that can be traced back to medieval Ireland, and it has been carried around the world by Irish emigrants over the centuries, contributing to the cultural diversity of many countries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name McGuirk

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

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 McGuirk was:

Race/EthnicityPercentageTotal Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only95.33%1,796
Non-Hispanic Black Only0.42%8
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only0.85%16
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native0.27%5
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races1.17%22
Hispanic Origin1.96%37

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 McGuirk has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

20102000Change (%)
White95.33%96.53%-1.25%
Black0.42%0.58%-32.00%
Asian and Pacific Islander0.85%0.53%46.38%
American Indian and Alaskan Native0.27%0.24%11.76%
Two or More Races1.17%1.20%-2.53%
Hispanic1.96%0.91%73.17%

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 McGuirk was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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