Historically Irish Surnames Dataset

This dataset provides a list of surnames that are reliably Irish and that can be used for identifying textual references to Irish individuals in the London area and surrounding countryside within striking distance of the capital. This classification of the Irish necessarily includes the Irish-born and their descendants. The dataset has been validated for use on records up to the middle of the nineteenth century, and should only be used in cases in which a few mis-classifications of individuals would not undermine the results of the work, such as large-scale analyses. These data were created through an analysis of the 1841 Census of England and Wales, and validated against the Middlesex Criminal Registers (National Archives HO 26) and the Vagrant Lives Dataset (Crymble, Adam et al. (2014). Vagrant Lives: 14,789 Vagrants Processed by Middlesex County, 1777-1786. Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.13103). The sample was derived from the records of the Hundred of Ossulstone, which included much of rural and urban Middlesex, excluding the City of London and Westminster. The analysis was based upon a study of 278,949 adult males. Full details of the methodology for how this dataset was created can be found in the following article, and anyone intending to use this dataset for scholarly research is strongly encouraged to read it so that they understand the strengths and limits of this resource:

    Adam Crymble, 'A Comparative Approach to Identifying the Irish in Long Eighteenth Century London', _Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History_, vol. 48, no. 3 (2015): 141-152.

The data here provided includes all 283 names listed in Appendix I of the above paper, but also an additional 209 spelling variations of those root surnames, for a total of 492 names.