Explore the Family Name O’shields

The meaning of O’shields

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Siaghail (modern Irish Ó Siáil) ‘descendant of Siadhal’, a well-attested personal name of unknown derivation.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname O'Shields has seen a slight decline in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 17,059th in popularity with a count of 1,535 people carrying the name. By 2010, the rank had slipped to 18,467 and the count fell slightly to 1,498 – a dip of 2.41%. This indicates that proportionally fewer people had this surname in 2010 compared to 2000, as reflected by the decrease in the proportion per 100,000 people from 0.57 to 0.51.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#17,059	#18,467	-8.25%
Count	1,535	1,498	-2.41%
Proportion per 100k	0.57	0.51	-10.53%

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

When looking at ethnicity data from the Decennial U.S. Census, we observe changes in the ethnic identity associated with the O'Shields surname over the same decade. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White, accounting for 96.68% in 2000 and 94.99% in 2010. However, there was a noteworthy increase among those identifying as Hispanic, from 0.98% in 2000 to 2.34% in 2010. People identifying as two or more races made up 1.11% in 2000, falling to 0.93% in 2010. While no individuals identified as Black or Asian/Pacific Islander in 2000, by 2010 there were some who did, representing 0.87% and 0% respectively. Those identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native comprised 0.72% in 2000, but none in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.68%	94.99%	-1.75%
Hispanic	0.98%	2.34%	138.78%
Two or More Races	1.11%	0.93%	-16.22%
Black	0%	0.87%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.72%	0%	0%