O'Kelly family name history and map
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O'Kelly in 1911 Ireland
The 1911 Census recorded 570 people named O'Kelly in Ireland; roughly one in every 7,700 people carried the name. The name was split fairly evenly between men and women: 283 men and 286 women. (A small number, 1, had no sex recorded.)
Counties with O'Kelly in Ireland
Dublin was O'Kelly country: 34% of them (194 people) lived there in 1911. Next came Limerick (123), Cork (75), Tipperary (32) and Kerry (16).
O'Kelly average age in 1911
The average O'Kelly in 1911 was 28.3 years old, 28.3 for men and 28.2 for women; a touch younger than the national averages of 29.6 for men and 30.5 for women. That low figure reflects just how many children there were in Edwardian Ireland, along with high infant mortality and the limits of public health at the time. For comparison, average life expectancy in Ireland today is around 83.
O'Kelly literacy in 1911
Of the O'Kellys whose literacy was recorded, 85.7% could both read and write, 2.7% could read but not write, and 11.6% could do neither. The figures were much the same for men and women. Bear in mind these figures include young children; the census itself only counted people aged nine and over when calculating illiteracy, on the grounds that it was unfair to label a child illiterate before they'd had a chance to learn.
O'Kelly common first names
The most common male names were John (31), Patrick, James, Thomas and Michael; the same five names that topped the list nationally. For women it was Mary (38), followed by Bridget, Margaret, Catherine and Alice.
O'Kelly occupations in 1911
The most common entry on an O'Kelly's census form was "Scholar"; 23.9% (136) were children at school. Among the rest, the most common occupations were farmer (6.7%), shopkeeper / shop assistant / dealer (5.8%), domestic servant (3%) and clerk / office worker (2.5%). Grouped by sector, agriculture accounted for 9.1% of all O'Kellys, followed by retail & commerce, professional and domestic service.
What religion is O'Kelly?
O'Kellys were overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, 96% of them. The remainder were mostly Anglican (1.8%) and Agnostic (0.4%).
Visitor Notes
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Added by
Pete F
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O'Kelly statistics (1911)
Number: 570
Rank: 1,213
Average Age: 28
O'Kelly in the USA (2020)
Number: 1,506
Rank: 18,212
Note: If there were less than 100 in the USA census it will show as zero.