Bishop
An Irish surname of Dublin. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 116,618 people, the 262nd most common surname in the country.
Bishop is the anglicised form of two distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.
Mac An Easpuic
Mac Giolla Easpuig, son of Giolla easpuig (the bishop's servant)
Where the name comes from
Two Bishops, and neither of them was one. Mac an Easpuic is son of the bishop, from easpoc, and it is very rare; it survives as MacAnespic, MacAnaspie, Easping and Aspig.
Mac Giolla Easpuig is son of the bishop's servant, and it has spread much further: MacGillespie, Gillespie, Gillaspy, Galesby, Glaspy, Glashby, Clusby and Bishop are all the one name.
Dublin, photographed
Photographs made in Dublin.
Dublin
Dublin is a county as well as a city. The bay has Howth at the north end and Killiney Hill at the south, the Muglins are a pair of rocks off Dalkey, and the Dublin Mountains start about half an hour from the city centre.
Notable bearers
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), writer, university teacher, and poet.
J. Michael Bishop (1936-2026), university teacher, physician, and chemist.
Kelly Bishop (born 1944), actor, singer, and dancer.
Julie Bishop (born 1956), politician, lawyer, and diplomat.
Maurice Bishop (1944-1983), politician.
About this page
The counties on this page are where the name was thickest on the ground in Ireland a century and a half ago, not a claim about any one family. Names moved around inside the country as much as they left it. The photographs are mine, made in the counties named.
More Irish surnames: Williams · Davis · Edwards · Cooper · Kelly · Cox · Brooks · Wood · James · Price · Butler · Jordan
How common the name was
In 1890, 9 births were registered under Bishop in Ireland, most of them in Dublin.
| Leinster | 6 | 67% |
|---|---|---|
| Munster | 2 | 22% |
| Ulster | 1 | 11% |
| Connacht | 0 | 0% |
| Ireland | 9 |