Your surname · Census of Ireland, 1911
Where your family name lived in Ireland
Type your surname and see your map. Every county is shaded by how many people of your name lived there on census night, 2 April 1911, with the name in Irish, the place with the most of you, and one fact we found in the numbers.
Ready-made previews for the 300 most common surnames in the 1911 census. Any other name is drawn after you order.
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The surname map
Choose how you want it
Printed at 50 x 70 cm (about 20 x 28 in). The print file is drawn fresh for your name, at full resolution. Prices include VAT and delivery to Ireland, the UK, the EU, the US, Canada and Australia.
Poster
Printed on heavy matte poster paper, rolled in a tube.
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Framed
The same print in a black wooden frame with a clear acrylic front, ready to hang.
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Digital download
The full-resolution PDF and PNG at 50 x 70 cm and 18 x 24 in, to print yourself. Sent by email.
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Gift voucher
They pick the name, you pick the gift. Redeemable for one surname poster.
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Also in the shop
Ireland, 1841 against today
In 1841 the island had 8.2 million people. Today it has about 7.45 million and has never caught up. This map shows every county's change since the 1841 census: Leitrim is down 77%, Dublin has almost quadrupled, and only 8 of the 32 counties have more people now than then.
Every number comes from the 1841 census report, the CSO and NISRA, and the sources are printed on the poster.
Poster €39, framed €119, digital download €9. Prices include VAT and delivery.
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Honest about the numbers
Where the data comes from
The 1911 census
Every count on the surname map comes from the National Archives of Ireland's 1911 census search, used with the archive's permission. It counts people, not households: everyone whose surname was transcribed as yours on a return in that county on census night.
- The search ignores capital letters, apostrophes and full stops, so O'Brien also finds OBrien. We add the spelling with a space (O Brien) as well. Mac and Mc, and O'Sullivan and Sullivan, are counted as different names, as the census wrote them.
- Transcription mistakes in the archive are carried over. A family recorded under a misspelling is not on your map.
- The "most in one place" is the townland or street with the most people of the name. A street's pin marks the middle of its electoral division.
- County populations for "per 1,000" are the 1911 census figures (CSO table F1001, and the 1911 county table for the six counties of Northern Ireland). Belfast is split between Antrim and Down as the census table does; we have not confirmed the archive files every Belfast household the same way.
The name in Irish
From the Gaois Database of Irish-Language Surnames (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, Dublin City University), reused under its open licence. We only print an Irish form the database itself gives for your surname. If it has none, or more than one match, we leave the line off rather than guess.
The one fact
Chosen by fixed rules from your county counts, such as "more Keegans in Leitrim than in all of Ulster". It is always literally true of the 1911 search counts, and we never write one by hand.
Maps and places
County shapes from Natural Earth. The six Northern Ireland counties, and the locations of townlands and electoral divisions, come from OpenStreetMap, via townlands.ie, © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database Licence.
Ireland, 1841 against today
1841: the census report (Thom, 1843). Today: the CSO's census and April 2026 population estimate for the Republic of Ireland, and NISRA's 2021 census and mid-2025 estimate for Northern Ireland. All sources are printed on the poster.
Privacy
This page sets no cookies and loads no trackers, analytics or outside fonts. The surname you type is matched inside your browser against the list of previews that came with the page; it is not sent anywhere until you choose to order. When you order, our payment provider (Stripe) handles your payment and our print partner (Gelato) prints and posts your order. The full privacy notice says what each one receives and how long we keep it.