Explore the Family Name O’byrne

The meaning of O’byrne

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Broin ‘descendant of Bran’, a personal name meaning ‘raven’ (see Byrne) or, in some cases, possibly from Ó Birn ‘descendant of Biorn’, the Irish form of the Old Norse personal name Bjǫrn. Some characteristic forenames: Irish Brendan, Ciaran, Cormac, Grainne.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name O’byrne in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname O'Byrne has seen a minor decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of the surname fell from 20,629 in 2000 to 21,717 in 2010, marking a 5.27% change. While the count of individuals bearing the surname saw a negligible increase of 0.42%, rising slightly from 1,193 to 1,198, the overall proportion of people with the O’Byrne surname per 100,000 decreased by 6.82%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#20,629	#21,717	-5.27%
Count	1,193	1,198	0.42%
Proportion per 100k	0.44	0.41	-6.82%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name O’byrne

In terms of ethnicity, based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, there were noticeable shifts within the O'Byrne surname bearers from 2000 to 2010. There was a marked increase in the percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic individuals carrying the O'Byrne surname, at 69.49% and 44.77% respectively. Furthermore, the representation of individuals identifying as two or more races also saw an increase by 9.52%. However, the proportion of white individuals with the O'Byrne surname decreased slightly by 2.26%. In addition, the surname appeared among Black individuals and remained unchanged among American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.73%	93.57%	-2.26%
Hispanic	2.77%	4.01%	44.77%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.59%	1%	69.49%
Two or More Races	0.84%	0.92%	9.52%
Black	0%	0.5%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%