Explore the Family Name O’keeffe

The meaning of O’keeffe

Irish (Munster, especially Cork): variant of O’Keefe. Some characteristic forenames: Irish Brendan, Dermot, Declan, Eamon, Eamonn.

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

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

The surname O’Keeffe has seen a steady increase in popularity according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, this surname was ranked 14,778th, but it saw an increase by 2010, moving up to 14,579th. This represents a 1.35 percent change in ranking. The number of people with the O’Keeffe surname also increased during this decade, from 1,843 in 2000 to 2,043 in 2010. This is a rise of nearly 11 percent. Furthermore, when considering the proportion per 100,000 people, this surname slightly grew in frequency from 0.68 to 0.69.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,778	#14,579	1.35%
Count	1,843	2,043	10.85%
Proportion per 100k	0.68	0.69	1.47%

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

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some shifts among those carrying the O’Keeffe surname between 2000 and 2010. The largest group remains those who identify as White, although its percentage dropped slightly from 96.42 percent to 94.96 percent. Meanwhile, those identifying as Hispanic saw the most significant increase, rising from 2.28 percent to 3.38 percent, which is a growth of 48.25 percent. The proportions of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those reporting two or more races also saw increases, up by 25.58 percent and 30.99 percent respectively. The data for those identifying as Black, American Indian, and Alaskan Native was suppressed for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.42%	94.96%	-1.51%
Hispanic	2.28%	3.38%	48.25%
Two or More Races	0.71%	0.93%	30.99%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.43%	0.54%	25.58%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%