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Name Lineage

    The surname Galway

    An Irish place surname, carried by 399 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈɡɔlweɪ/ 2 syllables Soundex G400

    Galway: #52,037 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Galway #52,037, 399 people Galway: #52,037 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Galway #52,037, 399 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Galway is more common than 67.9% of them.

    Origin

    Irish origin

    Anglicization of Irish Gaillimh, of uncertain meaning, said to mean "stony' (referring to the River Corrib). If so, it probably derives from Old Irish calad (“hard”); compare caillou, of Gaulish origin.

    Galway is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

    One of 880 Irish surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 399 people named Galway in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 773,798 Americans. That is up 4.5% since 2000, when the Census counted 382.

    #52,037
    rank among US surnames
    399
    people in 2010
    0.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    +4.5%
    change since 2000 (was #51,233)

    Who is named Galway

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    90% of people named Galway identified as white (not Hispanic), 4.5% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 90%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 4.5%
    • Two or more races 2.5%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Galway

    Galway has the Soundex code G400, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code G400.

    Other Irish surnames

    All 880 Irish surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Galway come from?
    Anglicization of Irish Gaillimh, of uncertain meaning, said to mean "stony' (referring to the River Corrib). If so, it probably derives from Old Irish calad (“hard”); compare caillou, of Gaulish origin.
    How common is the surname Galway?
    399 people in the United States had the surname Galway in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 773,798 Americans. It ranked 52,037th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Galway?
    In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Galway identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.5% as Black (not Hispanic).
    How do you pronounce Galway?
    Galway is /ˈɡɔlweɪ/, 2 syllables.
    What type of surname is Galway?
    Galway is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Galway getting more or less common?
    More common. 382 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 399 in 2010, up 4.5%.