O’Dowd
Ó Dubhda · descendant of Dubhda
O’Dowd is Ó Dubhda in Irish, said oh DOO-da, and means descendant of Dubhda.
From dubh, black. Lords of Tireragh on both sides of the Moy, and the name is still thickest within sight of that river.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Dubhda
- His daughter: Ní Dhubhda
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Dhubhda
- The family together: Uí Dhubhda
Where it comes from
Sligo and Mayo, the Moy estuary
Also spelt
O’Dowd, Dowd, Duddy, Doody
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.