Doyle
Ó Dubhghaill · descendant of Dubhghall
Doyle is Ó Dubhghaill in Irish, said oh DOO-gil, and means descendant of Dubhghall.
Dubhghall means dark foreigner, the name the Irish gave the Danish Vikings as against the fair Norwegians. A surname that remembers an invasion and then belonged to the people who were invaded.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Dubhghaill
- His daughter: Ní Dhubhghaill
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Dhubhghaill
- The family together: Uí Dhubhghaill
Where it comes from
Wexford and the southeast
Also spelt
Doyle, O’Doyle, Dowell, MacDowell
A name, not a pedigree
This is where the name came from, which is not the same as where you came from. Names were translated, anglicised, taken on by tenants and neighbours, and carried in by settlers who were no relation to the family that started them. To follow your own line, the 1901 and 1911 censuses are free and searchable, and give the county each person was born in.