Manx Surnames from 1881 censusManx Surnames from 1881 censusThese names are taken from heads of household who declared themselves born on the Isle of Man in the 1881 census. A total of some 8,870 heads of household met this criteria - some 450 names were borne by 2 or more families. (Heads of Households approximate to 'families' however note this criteria will miss those in lodgings (generally single persons) or multiple occupation (does not appear to be significant on the Island)).
The figure associated with each name gives the number of such heads - the top 20 family names account for more than a third of the total.
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| 1986 telephone directory |
1881 census ranking |
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| 1 | Kelly | 1 |
| 2 | Corlett | 4 |
| 3 | Quayle | 2 |
| 4 | Moore | 7 |
| 5 | Cain (Caine was 47) | 3 |
| 6 | Christian | 5 |
| =7 | Kneale | 18 |
| =7 | Teare | 14 |
| 9 | Clague | 6 |
| 10 | Shimmin | 16 |
Not too different from the 1881 rankings except for Kneale.
Quilliam also quotes a similar list of those names with 2,000 or more Parish Record entries (Rex Kissack once estimated that these records had about 200,000 entries dating from c.1700 to 1870).
| Cain Caine Callister Cannell Christian Clague Collister Corkhill Corkill Corlett |
Cowell Cowle Cowley Cubbin Cubbon Faragher Fargher Gell Gill Kelley Kelly |
Kewley Kneale Moore Quail Quayle Quirk Shimmin Teare Waterson Watterson |
The only names which are very common in the records but rare by 1881 are Cowle (moved to Cowell), Cubbin (to Cubbon), Kelley (to Kelly)and Quail (to Quayle ?)
L. Quilliam Surnames of the Manks Cashtal Books (ISBN 0-9514539-0-4) 1989
R. Kissack Anatomy of a Manx Family IoM Fam History Soc vol 2 No 4 pp95-101
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The
Editor |
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