# Bligh (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bligh/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Irish.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Irish |
| Type | patronymic, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 658 |
| US rank (2010) | 34,427 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 469,218 people |
| Change since 2000 | -2.1% (672 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Blee |

## Etymology

* As an Irish and Manx surname, from Ó Blighe (“descendant of Blighe”), probably Gaelicized from Old Norse Blígr, from blígja (“to gaze, stare”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyg-, from *bʰel- (“to shine”). * As a Cornish surname, from bleydh (“wolf”). Compare Blethen. * As an English surname of Norman origin, variant of Blythe.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bligh in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 96% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.8% |
| Two or more races | 0.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bligh in Australia and the Kingdom of Great Britain.

## People named Bligh

- Anna Bligh, Australian politician
- Thomas Bligh, British Army general

## Similar surnames

Balogh, Blough, Bleich, Bollig, Black, Blake, Bullock, Bowles, Block, Bliss, Boles, Bales.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.