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

Toohey, 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 Toohey surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Toohey in America

Toohey is the 11942nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Toohey surname appeared 2,618 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 Toohey.

We can also compare 2010 data for Toohey 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 Toohey

The surname Toohey originated in Ireland. It is an anglicized form of the Gaelic name Ó Tuathchair, which means "descendant of Tuathachar". The name is derived from the Irish Gaelic word "tuath", meaning "territory" or "people", and the diminutive suffix "-char".

The earliest known records of the name appear in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the 17th century. The Annals mention several members of the Ó Tuathchair family from County Mayo in the 13th and 14th centuries.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with this surname was Aodh Ó Tuathchair, a prominent chieftain who lived in the late 13th century. He is mentioned in the Annals of Loch Cé, a manuscript dating back to the 14th century.

In the 16th century, the name appeared in the Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns, a collection of royal letters and orders issued by the English monarchs during their rule over Ireland. The records mention a Richard O'Toohy who was granted lands in County Mayo in 1586.

During the 17th century, the spelling of the name began to evolve into its modern form, Toohey. One notable figure from this period was John Toohey, a Catholic priest who was executed in 1645 during the Confederate Wars in Ireland.

Another historical figure with this surname was Sir James Toohey, an Irish soldier who served in the British Army during the 18th century. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and was later appointed as the Governor of Grenada in 1789.

In the 19th century, the name Toohey appeared in various records and manuscripts, including the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, which documented the placenames and geographic features of the country. The survey recorded several townlands and localities with names derived from Ó Tuathchair, such as Toohey's Cross and Toohey's Bog.

One of the most famous individuals with the surname Toohey was John Toohey, an Irish-American labor leader who played a crucial role in the founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886. He was born in 1856 and served as the organization's first president until his death in 1923.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Toohey

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

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

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

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