# Cooney (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cooney/  
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) | 12,455 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,883 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 24,789 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.6% (12,136 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Anglicized form of Irish Ó Cuana (“descendant of Cuana”), a personal name either derived from cú (“hound”) or cuanna (“elegant, comely”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cooney 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) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.6% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3% |
| Two or more races | 1.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cooney in the United States and Australia.

## People named Cooney

- Kyra Cooney-Cross, Australian soccer player
- Joan Ganz Cooney, American television producer (born 1929)
- Walter R. Cooney, Jr., American astronomer
- Gerry Cooney, American boxer
- Barbara Cooney, American writer and illustrator of children's books
- Kara Cooney, American egyptologist
- Mike Cooney, American politician

## Similar surnames

Coon, Coyne, Cone, Coney, Coen, Conway, Cohoon, Comey, Chen, Cohen, Chan, Cain.

## 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.