O’Toole
Ó Tuathail · descendant of Tuathal
O’Toole is Ó Tuathail in Irish, said oh TOO-hil, and means descendant of Tuathal.
Tuathal means ruler of the people. Saint Laurence O’Toole was Archbishop of Dublin when the Normans took the city in 1170, and the family were kings of Leinster before that.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Tuathail
- His daughter: Ní Thuathail
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Thuathail
- The family together: Uí Thuathail
Where it comes from
Wicklow and Kildare
Also spelt
O’Toole, Toole, Toal, Tuohill
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.